License to wed
by ProFfeSseR
Summary: Takes place after season 7. Luke and Lorelai want to get married, but Taylor isn't willing to give them a marriage license. In order to get one, they have to go see a pshychologist. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Last week I really wanted to start writing a new story, but the only problem was that I had no ideas for a story. But then I was talking to Akarana on MSN and she gave me one of her many great ideas to write. Thank you very much!! This story is for you!!!_

**Chapter 1 – Prologue **

"No."

"What?" Luke and Lorelai looked at Taylor in shock.

"No." The man said, his arms crossed in front of him.

"Why not?" Lorelai asked, seeing that Luke was losing his patience.

"I'm not giving you a license to get married."

"Why not?" She asked again.

"Because of your history. Isn't it obvious that you and Luke are not suitable to get married?"

"That's ridiculous." Luke exclaimed, the anger building up inside him. "I think Lorelai and I should decide that."

"I'm sorry Luke, but this town is my responsibility. You and Lorelai both have important roles in this town. We've seen what the two of you breaking up did to this town more than once now. I can't allow it to happen again."

"We're not planning on breaking up. We want to get married."

"I can't allow that. I'm sorry." Taylor tried to sound genuine.

"You're not sorry." Luke yelled. "You think that you can make every single decision in this town. Well, if I want to marry Lorelai I'm going to marry her. Whether you want it or not."

"Not in this town."

"We'll see to that." Luke said, and turned around, ready to walk away.

"You can't get married in this town without a marriage license. And I'm the only person you can get a license from in this town. So without my permission, you're not getting married in Stars Hollow. And I'm not giving you my permission."

Luke turned around and grabbed Taylor by his collar. "Taylor, You…. You……Who the hell do you think you are? Do you really think you can keep me and Lorelai apart? Because you couldn't be more wrong. I'm going to marry her, with or without your permission."

Taylor coughed a few times, trying to catch some air. "Let go of me Luke."

"Luke, you're hurting him." Lorelai said, although she couldn't care less. She pulled on Luke's sleeve. "Come on, let go of him. He's not worth it."

Lorelai's voice seemed to calm Luke down and he let Taylor go.

"Wise decision Luke." Taylor said. "If you ever touch me again, I'm going to file a complaint."

Luke wanted to take a step in Taylor's direction again, but Lorelai pulled him away. "Don't. It's not going to help us."

She directed Luke towards the diner where she immediately climbed the stairs to his apartment, pulling Luke with her. The second the door closed behind them Luke pulled away from Lorelai and started pacing through his apartment.

"That man thinks he can get away with anything. I lived in this town all my life, and the amount of times he pulled tricks like this. I don't understand why he has this much control over this town and what's going on in it. Or why he thinks he has is better said. He's losing his mind. He thinks he can pull you and me apart, after everything we've been through. It's not going to happen. I'll drive to Maryland right now and marry you and we can throw our license in his face when we get back. Let's do that. Let's just drive there and get this over with."

Lorelai remained silent at first, letting Luke rant, but now it was her turn to stop him. She stood in front of him and looked directly into his eyes. "Is that really what you want? To elope and get married just to piss off Taylor? I thought this was about us. About us getting married in front of our friends and family. To show them that we want to spend the rest of our lives together."

"It is. I want to spend the rest of my live with you. That's why I asked you to marry me. But if Taylor doesn't give us our license, what else can we do?" He looked at her, defeated.

"I'll go talk to him. He'll give us the license. I promise. No matter what it takes. I want to marry you Luke, but I don't want to elope. I know that we talked about that once and back then I wanted it, but not anymore. I want a wedding. I want Rory and April to be my bridesmaids. And I want everyone to be there, including my parents."

Luke nodded as he slowly sat down on the couch, letting his head rest in his hands. He thought for a second and then looked up, sighing. "How will we get that wedding?"

"We'll find a way. If we have to we'll get married in Hartford or some other town, but I really want to get married here, in Stars Hallow. Preferably at the inn, where it all started a couple of years ago. Or here in the town square where you threw that wonderful goodbye party for Rory. The party that brought us together again." She smiled at the memories. "This town is where our life is. This is where we met each other all those years ago. This is where our friendship started and where our friendship turned into something more. If hadn't come to this town when I was 17 years old, we wouldn't be getting married right now."

Luke nodded, knowing that Lorelai was right. As much as he hated to admit it, this town meant everything to him as well. And if Lorelai wanted to get married her, he had to make sure that would happen. "I'll go talk to Taylor again."

Lorelai shook her head with a smile. "Honey, I don't think that's such a good idea. Pissing off Taylor will only work in the opposite direction."

Luke looked up at her. "You're probably right."

"I'm always right. How about I go talk to him, okay?"

She could be very persuasive sometimes. She was able to convince him to do a lot of things he didn't want. If anyone could convince Taylor to give them the license it was her. "I guess that couldn't hurt."

"Good. I'll be right back." She pecked his lips. "It'll be fine. We'll have that license in no-time."

He kissed her again. "I hope you're right." And with that, he let her go.

-xxxxxx-

Lorelai walked towards Doose's market where Taylor was running the cash register. She waited until the line was gone until she approached Taylor on the other side.

"Hello Taylor. Can I talk to you for a second?"

Taylor turned around at the sound of her voice. "Lorelai." He acknowledged the woman in front of him. "What can I do for you?"

"You know perfectly well where you can help me with Taylor. A tiny piece of paper that says I can marry Luke." She threw in a smile, hoping it would help.

"You know perfectly well I can't help you with that. We just discussed this." He was immediately annoyed, not wanting to have the same discussion twice.

"Come on Taylor, there must be a way for you to give us that license."

"I don't think there is. This town…"

"Is your responsibility. Yes, I know that. But I love Luke and he loves me and we've been through a lot together. We decided that we want to spend the rest of our lives together, and we want to be married while doing that. All we need is your help with that license."

Taylor turned around at the sound of someone coughing. He helped his customer before turning back to Lorelai. "You were engaged once before and that didn't stop you from breaking up."

"That was then, this is now." She was almost begging. She wanted nothing more than to marry Luke. She had to convince Taylor that this was right.

"Who says you won't break up again? You and Luke have so many issues."

"None that are any of your business." She shot him an annoyed look, starting to become angry because he was intervening in things that he shouldn't .

"They are my business if they affect this town. You and Luke are both well respected citizens in this town and you are a part of this town's economy. Your decisions affect this town. You saw how the town divided in two the first time you and Luke broke up."

"And who's to blame for that?" Lorelai snapped. "You're the one who handed out those stupid ribbons. You made people choose between Luke and me. You split the town in two."

Taylor shook his head. "I only made sure the whole manner took place openly. I made sure everybody knew whose side one was on to prevent problems."

"That's bull." Lorelai shot him an angry look. "You only made things worse."

"It's clearly you haven't dealt with the matter. You and Luke are not ready for marriage. I won't allow it because if you and Luke would get a divorce, the whole town will divide again."

"We won't get a divorce." She was desperately trying to convince Taylor.

"How would you know? You and Luke were both married once. And as I recall both of you divorced within one year. With those track records I just can't allow it."

Lorelai sighed in defeat, realizing it was hard to convince Taylor that she and Luke were right for each other. "I guess me telling you that I love Luke isn't enough to proof to you that I really want to marry him. And that you don't have to worry about us breaking up again because it really won't happen."

"No it isn't."

"Then what can I do to prove it?"

"Therapy." He stated it as if it was the most common thing in the world.

"What?" She looked at him in shock, not really believing what he was saying.

"I want you and Luke to go to therapy. If I get a letter from a psychologist saying that you and Luke are suitable to get married, I will give you the license."

"Therapy?" Still shocked and in her mind already trying to figure out how she could convince Luke to do it.

Taylor nodded and then turned around to help a customer.

Lorelai waited patiently until Taylor was finished, but she had trouble getting his attention again. While Taylor was scanning the articles from another customer she said. "You can't be serious."

"I'm very serious. The only way for you and Luke to get a license is by showing me that letter. That way I know for sure that you and Luke will make it work." Then he turned to his customer. "That's 15.65 please."

The man handed Taylor a twenty dollar bill. "There you go."

"Thank you." Taylor put the bill and the cash register and took out four dollar bills, a quarter and a dime. "And here's your change. Have a nice day."

The man nodded, then took his groceries from the bag boy and left.

"We don't have to see a therapist. Luke and I belong together, and we talked about our issues ourselves. We're ready."

Taylor shook his head. "If you want to marry Luke you'll convince him to see that therapist because it is the only way I'm giving you this license. You are not getting married in this town if I'm not completely convinced that you and Luke are going to make it. And unless you have to buy groceries I have to ask you to leave, because you're keeping me from my work."

"Fine." With a sigh Lorelai walked into the direction of the diner again. She knew it wouldn't be easy to convince Luke to go.

-xxxxxx-  
Luke looked up when he heard the bells ring, instinctively knowing it was Lorelai. After she left to go talk to Taylor, he had decided to go to work. It was better to distract himself with that, than to wait upstairs for her. Because the diner was a little overstaffed with him there he had send Zack home so he could help Lane feeding Steve and Kwan.

He turned around and filled a cup with coffee, placing it on the counter. "And?" Luke asked when Lorelai sat down on the stool in front of him.

"Let's say there is good new and there is bad news." She picked up the cup and took a large sip of her coffee.

"Oh boy." He muttered, knowing that nothing good could come out of this.

Lorelai put the cup down. "Taylor is willing to give us a marriage license. All we have to do is show him a letter from a psychologist that says that you and I are suitable to get married."

"And how will we do that?"

"Therapy."

"What?" He shook his head, not liking this at all.

"Taylor wants us to see a therapist."

"No way." Luke said, shaking his head again. "I'm not doing that."

"It's the only way Luke. If we want to get married in Stars Hallow, we have to go see a therapist."

"Then we'll get married somewhere else." There was no way he was going to therapy.

"Come on Luke." She begged. "I want to get married here. It can't be that bad. If we just show this guy how much we care about each other, I'm sure he'll give that letter the second the first session is over."

"You think?" He somehow found it hard to believe Lorelai.

"Of course. We've been through a lot, but we've dealt with our issues. And I'm sure that if we tell that, we'll have that letter in no-time."

Luke knew they didn't have much of a choice if they wanted to get married in this town. With a sigh he nodded. "Okay then. Therapy it is."

T.B.C.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews. I understand that not everyone likes the idea of this story, and many hate Taylor, but a lot of you like it and I really appreciate your interest in this story! Hope you enjoy the next chapter._

**Chapter 2**

Lorelai looked around the waiting room of the psychologist. It looked old fashioned. The walls were decorated with dark wood, there was an ugly green carpet on the floor and there were old red leather chairs. There were several paintings on the wall that looked cheap and in one corner was a black and white picture of a man, probably some ancestor of the man they would be seeing soon.

She turned to look at Luke. He seemed nervous. He was looking down at his shoes and fidgeting with his fingers.

"You okay?" She asked, concerned.

He nodded. "Just a little uncomfortable."

She took his hand in hers and squeezed it, understanding. "We'll be out of here in no-time. I promise."

"I hope so. I know this is nothing like a hospital, but it makes me feel the exact same way."

She knew how much he hated hospitals and squeezed his hand one more time before releasing it. She wasn't too fond of being here either. The last time she talked to a psychologist her whole life had fallen apart. That's why she picked a male psychologist from the yellow pages. Hoping he would be nothing like Libby. From the way the waiting room looked, she probably made the right choice. There was no way Libby's office would look anything like this.

Satisfied with that thought she picked up a magazine and started flipping through the pages. She smiled as she realized this magazine was as old as anything else in the office.

Luke heard her chuckle and looked up. "What?"

"I really wonder what this man will look like." She looked at the door that most likely led to the man's office. 'Angus Spencer' was written on it with golden letters.

"I still don't understand why you picked this guy." Luke stated, looking down at his shoes again.

"Because his name sounds like he comes directly from a movie."

Before Luke could comment that, the door to the office opened and a young woman stepped out, soon followed by a man in his late fifties, dressed in a pair of brown cord trousers, a gray blouse, a striped vest and a colorful tie. His gray hair was messy and his glasses were hanging around his neck by a cord. For a second Lorelai thought this was the woman's father, but she soon realized that this was Angus Spencer. Their psychologist.

"I'll see you next week Rose. And remember, there is no need to be afraid of cats." The man said, a hint of British in his accent.

The woman nodded. "I'll try. Thank you Dr. Spencer."

"See you next week Rose."

And with that the women left.

"You must be Miss Gilmore and Mr. Danes." Dr. Spencer said, turning to Luke and Lorelai.

"Yes, that's us." Lorelai said, while standing up.

"My name is Angus Spencer. Most people call me Spencer so feel free to do the same thing." He said, while shaking Lorelai's hand.

"Most people call me Lorelai." Lorelai replied. "And they call him Luke."

"Well please come in." Spencer said, while shaking Luke's hand.

The office wasn't much different than the waiting area. The walls had the exact same color and the carpet was the same as well. There was a big window that hardly let in any light because of the massive plants that were standing on the ledge. There were dark red velour curtains and an old dark desk of oak wood with brown leather chairs around it. In the corner of the room was a leather couch that matched the chairs.

"Welcome to my office." Spencer said. "Please, take a seat."

Luke and Lorelai sat down on the leather chairs and waited until Spencer took a seat himself.

"Well, what can I do for you?" He asked, folding his hands on the desk in front of him.

"We want to get married." Lorelai started.

"Then I believe you're in the wrong building. The court house is on the other side of the street."

Lorelai shook her head. "No, we don't want to get married right away. Or we do actually, but we have trouble getting a marriage license."

"Why is that?" Spencer asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Because Taylor is an idiot." Luke muttered.

"Who's Taylor?"

"Our mayor."

"I see. And why is this Taylor not willing to give you a license to get married?"

"Because he has the need to control everything that is going on in our town." Luke said, annoyance hearable in his voice.

"Okay. So tell me, what can I do for you?"

"We need you to write a letter that Luke and I are capable to get married." Lorelai said.

"I see. And why would I do that?"

"Because it's the only way Taylor will give us the license. We know we can get married in any town, but we want to get married in Stars Hallow."

"I see. But I still don't understand why this Taylor isn't willing to just give you the license. I understand you feel like he has to control everything in your town, but there must be a reason why he's not giving you the license."

Lorelai nodded. "Luke and I have been through some rough time over the past few years. We got together, broke up, got together again, broke up and just recently got back together after Luke threw this amazing farewell party for Rory."

Spencer nodded. "I see. So Taylor is afraid the two of you will break up again?"

"I guess." Lorelai said. "But he shouldn't. Luke and I talked about our differences. I forgave him for not telling me about his daughter and shutting me out of his life, and he forgave me for sleeping with Christopher, and marrying him."

Spencer picked up his glasses and started cleaning them with his vest before putting them on his nose. "It sounds like we have a lot to talk about because none of this is making any sense to me. Let's start at the beginning. Who is Rory?" He opened a drawer and took out a notebook, putting it on the desk in front of them. Then he took a fountain pen out of his breast pocket, ready to take notes.

"My daughter. She graduated from Yale a few months ago and started working for an online magazine in Eldfridge to cover Barack Obama's presidential campaign."

"Uhuh." Spencer mumbled and scribbled something on the paper. "And you have a daughter too?" He asked, while turning to Luke.

Luke nodded. "Her name is April."

Spencer waited until Luke said something else, but when he remained silent he commented. "You're not very talkative I see. Tell me why Lorelai didn't know about April.."

"Because her mother never told me she was pregnant. It wasn't until 2 years ago that April came into my diner and stole a hair from me for a DNA test. For her science project at school she wanted to find out who her father was. Apparently it was me."

"So you didn't know about her either. What did you do after you found out?"

"I didn't know what to do. Lorelai had just reconciled with Rory and I didn't want to disturb that so I decided to wait to tell her. But the longer I waited, the harder it became. When she finally found out I wanted to get to know April first."

"And you pushed Lorelai away."

Luke nodded, embarrassed.

Turning to Lorelai he asked. "What has this Christopher guy to do with the whole picture?"

"Christopher is Rory's father. I got pregnant at the age of 16 and while my parents wanted me to marry Christopher, I knew that wasn't right. I raised Rory by myself for most of the time, with the help of my friends, including Luke. Chris was never really a part of Rory's life. For most of the time we didn't know where he lived. Sometimes he send Rory a postcard or called, but when she tried to call him on the same number later, he had always disappeared. When she got older Chris became a bigger part in her life and I always stayed friends with him. When Luke and I were heading the rough road, I went to him and made the biggest mistake of my life."

"You slept with him?"

Lorelai nodded, embarrassed. "Luke and I were engaged at the time but we were drifting apart. I went to him that night with an ultimatum. I asked him to elope and he said no. For me it was over. I couldn't go to Rory because her boyfriend had just left to go to London and I already spend too much time at my best friend's Sookie's house so I started driving and ended up at Chris'. I didn't realize what I did until it was already too late. When Luke came to my house a day later he was ready to elope, but I had to tell him what happened. That ended things for good. Or at least, that's what I thought at the time. I started dating Christopher and one thing led to another and we ended up getting married in Paris. The whole thing didn't even last for 6 months or so because I was never in love with him. The divorce was final a couple of months ago."

"And then the two of you got back together?"

"First we became friends again. Luke came to the hospital when my father had a heart attack. When my car broke down he went car shopping with me and in the end found the exact same car of which I could use the engine to fix my car. And when Rory had to leave rather sudden after graduation and we couldn't reenact her graduation he planned this surprise party for her in the middle of the town square. And that's when I realized what was in front of me."

"And now you want to get married?"

Lorelai nodded eagerly. "Luke asked me to marry him last week. He took me out on this romantic date and at the end of the evening he pulled a ring out of his pocket and went down on one knee."

Spencer nodded while writing something down. Then he looked up over his glasses. "You said you broke up twice?"

Lorelai looked at Luke, but when he remained silent she decided to speak again. "I guess I have to start by saying that my parents are two rich people who want what's best for me, but what they want is completely different than what I want. I ran away from home with Rory when I was 17 years old. I ended up in Stars Hallow where I took a job as a maid at the local inn. The owner of the inn, Mia, took us in her heart and let us live in the potting shed. Anyway, for 15 years I only saw my parents on the holidays but a few months before Rory turned 16 she was accepted to Chilton prep school. This was a great opportunity for her, but the problem was that I couldn't pay for the tuition so I begged my parents for the money. My mother agreed to give me the money but in return we had to my parents for dinner every Friday night.

Because of that they became a bigger influence in my life. Or at least they wanted to be. When Luke and started dating my mother thought he wasn't right for him because he owns a diner. They tried to get him to franchise his diner, but that's not Luke. They didn't accept him for who he was and in the end that drove us apart."

Spencer lifted his arm and pulled up his sleeve a little, checking his watch. Then he scanned his notes and wrote down a few more things before closing the notebook. "You want me to write a letter for your mayor to say you are fit to get married?"

"That would be very nice. Can you write it right now so we can take it with us or do you want me to pick it up later this week?" Lorelai asked, convinced they would get this letter.

Spencer shook his head. "No, no, no. Things are not that simple. From what I heard this past hour the two of you have been through a lot. I can feel the issues hanging between you. I believe you can make it but there are still so many things hanging between the two of you. There are a lot of things I want to talk to you about. For now I think that one hour a week is enough so that the two of you have time to think about the things we discuss in between. I think it wouldn't be right to push things, but if you really insist I will agree with 2 hours a week after a couple of sessions."

"What?" Luke asked, clearly not liking the idea of spending more time in this office.

Spencer raised his hand. "I understand this is not what you thought when you first came here. I am willing to help you and I will write that letter. But first we have to work through your issues. Of course it is your decision. I'm sure that if you search long enough you'll find a psychologist who is willing to just write you that letter if you pay good money, but I'm not like that. I've done this job for almost 30 years and I've seen a lot of people like you. Many of them came here but then thought they could handle things by themselves and they ended up divorced or worse. But of course, it's all up to you."

Luke and Lorelai shared a look. For some weird reason she trusted this man. She didn't understood why because he looked wacky and he probably never remodeled his office after he moved in those 30 years ago, but she just trusted him. "Let's do it?" She asked Luke, who raised his shoulders.

"I don't know." He said, clearly uncomfortable.

"Let me give you two a minute." Spencer said, while he stood up. "I could use a cup of coffee. My throat is getting dry from all the talking. He left his office, closing the door behind him.

"Come on Luke, we need that letter if we want to get married."

"But he just said we can probably find someone to write it right away if we're willing to pay good money. I'm willing to do anything so I can marry you."

"Then do this for me Luke. I don't know why, but I have a good feeling about this. Maybe it's good to talk about things with someone else. Just start over completely this time. I couldn't stand us being apart again."

"You only think we will because of what Taylor said."

Lorelai shook her head. "No, well, maybe at first, but not anymore."

"So you really think we should do it?"

Lorelai nodded. "I really do."

Luke sighed. "Fine, then we'll do it."

T.B.C.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Major thanks to Jessi for her amazing input on this chapter. I credit her for all the fun stuff!! And also thanks to those who read and reviewed the last chapter. I'm glad you all like Spencer ;) Hope you like this chapter as well. Please R&R!_

**Chapter 3 – First meeting **

"So tell me, how did the two of you meet?" Spencer asked.

"Luke is very good at telling that story." Lorelai said, taking Luke's hand in hers.

"We met at my diner." He said, interlacing his fingers with Lorelai's.

Lorelai sighed, remembering how he told her this story on their first date and hoping he would tell it to Spencer in the same way. Spencer noticed this and before Lorelai started to tell the entire story herself, he interrupted.

"Can you tell me about it some more?"

"It was a very busy day, around lunch time. The place was packed and she came in. I was with a customer and she interrupts me, wild-eyed, begging for coffee. I tell her to wait her turn, but then she starts following me around, talking a mile a minute saying God knows what. I finally turn to her and tell her she's being annoying and that she has to sit down and shut up and I'll get to her when I get to her. She takes a seat at the counter and asks me what my birthday was. When I wouldn't tell her, she wouldn't stop talking so in the end I gave in and my birthday. Then she opened the newspaper to the horoscope page, wrote something down, tore it out and handed it to me. I look at the piece of paper in my hand and under Scorpio she had written 'you will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she'll go away and so I gave her coffee.'" A small smile appeared on Luke's face as he remembered what Lorelai had looked that day.

Spencer smiled inwardly, happy that he finally got Luke to open up. "She never went away?" He asked, while he wrote down a few notes about how Luke and Lorelai met.

Luke shook his head. "She always came back."

"Did you start with a relationship immediately or were you friends first?" Spencer asked.

Lorelai felt like answering that question. "First we had a customer – diner owner kind of relationship. He provided me with my coffee, made me and Rory breakfast and dinner whenever we ate there. Later we became friends and eventually that became something more. But that was 8 years after I first walked into the diner."

Spencer nodded and wrote down a few more notes. Then he put his pen down and asked "why did it take you so long to get together?"

Lorelai raised her shoulders. "I guess we never saw what was in front of us."

"Luke?" Spencer asked, really wanting to know Luke's opinion on the matter.

"I guess what she's saying is right. The first 2 years she called me Duke instead of Luke. Beats me why. When we became friends I started to care for her and Rory. I helped her fix things around her house, I listened to her problems, I went to her when my nephew Jess was living with me and I had no idea how to fix him."

"So you saw each other quite often?"

"At least once a day. Most of the time even more." Lorelai said. "I definitely needed my coffee fix, and he had, and has the best coffee in town."

"So for 8 years you saw each other at least once a day, most of the time even more, then why did it took you so long to see what was in front of you? Did you have no feelings for each other?"

They both stayed silent at this question. It was something they rarely talked about.

"Did things change suddenly after 8 years or did they change before that?" Spencer tried again, hoping one of them would answer his question.

"There was always someone else." Luke finally said.

"Go on." Spencer said, making a gesture with his hand to encourage Luke.

"I don't remember when I realized how I felt about Lorelai, but I do know that she was always with someone or just coming out of a relationship. There has always been Christopher. There was Max, the guy she was going to marry, then there was this guy for whom she wanted me to teach her how to fish, her father's business partner and several other guys I don't remember."

"What about Rachel? And not to mention that you got married." Lorelai retorted, not liking that he was putting all her previous relationships on the table.

"So did you." Luke said, hurt that she brought up his failed marriage to Nicole.

"That was much later. I didn't just go off on a cruise and came back married, ready to file for divorce. Also I didn't move to another county without telling you."

"No, you went to Paris with Christopher and came back married. That's totally different." Luke argued.

Lorelai sighed, realizing Luke was right. "I regret doing that."

"And I regret marrying Nicole. That relationship was never right."

"Why not?" Spencer interfered, wanting to know if Luke already had feelings for Lorelai when the marriage took place.

"I wasn't really willing to let Nicole into my life. I moved into her townhouse and yet I spent most of the nights in my apartment above the diner."

"Why do you think that was?"

Luke raised his shoulders. "I guess I never really loved her. I cared about her, but that's all. In the end she cheated on me and I was really hurt and we finally got divorced."

"The sock man" Lorelai said.

"Yeah, the sock man" Luke replied.

Spencer looked confused. "The sock man?"

Luke sighed. "I realized that she was cheating on me when I didn't wear my socks."

"Because he always wears white socks with a red stripe, but he realized that now he was wearing different socks."

" What did you do?" Spencer asked.

"I drove over to the house, waiting for her. I saw her go into the house with that guy."

"And then he beat up his car and I had to bail him out when he got arrested"

"You got arrested?" Spencer asked. "Do you always tend to aggressiveness? We might have something to do against that as well!"

"I don't" Luke said, slightly irritated at the suggestion.

Spencer is not convinced.

Lorelai wanted to stand up for Luke. "He's really not. Except for when he beat up that car. Or when he threw the pan at Taylor. Or pushed Jess in the Lake. When he beat up Dean. And Chris. And you pulled Kirk by the ear." She opened her eyes wildly and exclaimed "Oh my god! You are aggressive! Spencer is right, you should do something against that!"

Luke looked at her unnerved. "Lorelai, would you just shut up now?"

"See! There you go!" Lorelai said. No more proof was necessary.

Luke groaned in response.

Spencer grinned about their banter and asks the question, deciding to ignore their banter. "Lorelai, "Luke said you were going to marry this guy, what was his name, Max?" When Lorelai nodded in confirmation, he asked. "Why didn't you?"

"Because he wasn't the right guy for me. I just realized it in time and called off the wedding."

"How did you realize he wasn't the right one?" Spencer asked.

Lorelai sighed. "I don't know. He came over and I couldn't sleep in one bed with him. And Luke said that it's not biologically natural for people to mate for life."

Spencer raised his eyebrows, confused. "What?"

"He said that animals don't mate for life. Well, except birds but as I recall he said, who cares about birds."

"So Luke you were against this wedding?" Spencer asked.

"I was not." Luke defended himself.

"Oh you were bucko. You didn't like Max."

"That's not true."

"It's absolutely true! That day when he came with us to the diner and you had to wait a second while he chose what to have for breakfast, it was SO obvious you hated him. You even brought him the lunch menu in case he didn't make up his mind before you stopped serving breakfast." She recalled that particular morning.

"He had three different newspapers! What kind of freak reads three different newspapers every morning?"

Spencer looked offended. "Actually I do"

"Oh... Well…" Luke stammered, before turning back to Lorelai. "But I was not against this wedding. l even made you the chuppah!"

Lorelai smiled. "Yeah, the beautiful chuppah with Gilbert."

"Gilbert?" Spencer asked, his eyebrows raised again.

"Gilbert the goat."

"I see". Spencer said, and then decided he had to turn this conversation serious again. "So Luke is the right guy for you?"

Lorelai nodded. "He is. I just didn't know it back then."

"I see." Spencer took ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair. "So you both had your share in relationships before you got together. How did things finally change?"

Lorelai smiled immediately, remembering when their friendship turned into something more. "Luke invited me to his sister's wedding. At first I didn't think of it as a date, but now I like to believe that it was."

"Why did you decide to ask Lorelai to your sister's wedding?" Spencer asked.

Luke thought for a moment. He wasn't really willing to reveal the truth. The fact that he read Jess' book and bought the self-help tapes was something he kept to himself all this time. Jess was the only one who knew about it, and if he could do anything about it, it would stay that way. Finally he said "After my divorce with Nicole got finalized I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted in it and I finally realized what was in front of me all along. I realized that nothing would ever happen between me and Lorelai unless I took the first step."

"Was it awkward?"

They both shook their heads. "It wasn't an official date. And although we had a small disagreement I had a great day. I even got Luke to Waltz and I didn't know he could do that. It was the day afterwards when things got awkward because it wasn't until then I realized it had been a date and I freaked out. I shoved things off a table at the diner, creating a mess. I ran into a door at the inn, things like that." She shook her head, thinking about how weird she'd been acting back then.

"What happened next?"

"I had a test run at my inn and Luke was invited among some other of our friends. My ex-boyfriend Jason showed up saying he wanted me back and whatever I did, I couldn't get him to go away. That day I was very busy entertaining my guest, making sure everything was going okay so we didn't have much time to talk, but when we cleaned everything and almost everybody went to bed, Luke was waiting for me in the lobby. He started ranting about how I knew what his intentions were, completely confusing me. We started fighting and then he moves towards me and tells me to stand still. So I stand still and then he leans and kisses me. We kissed twice before Kirk interrupted us."

"The Kirk you pulled on the ear?" Spencer asked Luke.

"The very one." Luke grumbled. "I should have kicked his ass as well that night"

Lorelai giggled. "His naked ass"

"This Kirk was naked when he interrupted you?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, He was having a nightmare and ran buck naked out of the Inn. Luke followed him.

Spencer: Why did he ran out?"

"He thought assassins were after him." Luke stated, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

Spencer looked confused. "Assassins?"

"That's Kirk for ya." Lorelai said. "He ended up in the rosebushes before Luke could catch him."

"OW" Spencer frowned.

Lorelai giggled again. "More like Ew."

Spencer once again decided to turn the conversation somewhat serious. "And that's when your relationship started? After Kirk had rose thorns in his butt?"

"That's where it would have started if Luke's sister and her husband hadn't gotten into a car accident and he hadn't gone to Maine for weeks to help them out."

Spencer nodded, understanding. "So after 8 years you finally kissed for the first time but still had to wait weeks before you could really start a relationship. How was that?"

"Horrible pretty much covers it." Lorelai said and Luke nodded in agreement.

"We talked over the phone almost every day and I promised her every day I would come home soon, but I wasn't able to until the summer was over." He still regretted that summer.

"How was it when you were finally able to start the relationship for real?"

"Awkward but also familiar. I guess we knew each other so well, but we were also learning new sides of each other. It was definitely different than dating something you just met. Better." Lorelai said.

"Can you elaborate that?"

"At first we didn't really know what to expect. On our official first date I went outside when I saw Luke pulling up, but he expected the whole date thing. Ring the doorbell, walk me to the car, all that. But later we got better at it and I learned a whole new side of Luke. I found out that he has a Luke's." She smiled at the memories of their first date. It seemed so long ago now, but she could still remember every little detail.

Spencer raised his eyebrows, confused. "A Luke's?"

Lorelai smile went even bigger. "His diner is called Luke's. On our first date he brought me to this beautiful little tavern owned by friends of his parents. I found he went there to eat a couple of times a week. Like I come to his diner a few times a week. So I guess that even though we thought we knew each other pretty well, there were still a lot of things we didn't know about each other."

"So you made a great effort by taking her there on your first date." Spencer said to Luke. "You let her in to a part of your life. Or did you bring all your dates there?"

Luke shook his head. "Lorelai is the only woman I ever brought there."

Spencer nodded. "What did you do after dinner?"

"We went back to the diner for coffee, then one thing lead to another." Lorelai said and when she glanced at Luke she saw him blushing.

"Lorelai." He hissed, not wanting to let Spencer in on that part of their life.

"Don't worry," Spencer said. "We're all adults here. That is a very healthy part of a relationship. How was it to take that big step from being friends to something more? There is no way turning back after that."

When Luke remained silent Lorelai said. "Better than I could have ever imagined. You would think it'd be awkward to see each other naked for the first time, to do that for the first time, but it really wasn't. Of course I was nervous and I know Luke was as well, but it was also new and exciting. And I trusted him. It was something completely different than I ever experienced with any other man."

"And for you?" Spencer asked, really wanting to know Luke's opinion about the subject.

Luke shook his head. "I really don't want to talk about this. I'm not here to discuss our sexual relationship. The only reason I'm here is to get that letter so Taylor will give us our marriage license." He brought up the real reason they were there, and that brought Lorelai back to reality as well.

"How does talking about this helps us get that letter anyway?" She asked, starting to wonder what Spencer wanted from them.

"I understand your worries." He said, making sure compassion was hearable in his voice. "All I want is to get an insight in your relationship. You were friends for so long. I want to know what it was like to turn that into something more. How things changed for the both of you. Some things are very natural, but others are aren't. Even though you were good friends, it can be hard to have a complete different relationship all the sudden. You have to let each other in on every little detail of your life. Things you can easily keep hidden from a friend but not from a partner. I want to find out exactly what went wrong in your relationship. What caused you to break up twice and what will change to prevent that from happening again. On which parts of your relationship the both of you have to work on. And I really do not need to hear all the little details about your sexual life. I just want to know what it was like to take that step with your friend, that's all."

Luke nodded, understanding where Spencer was coming from. Still a little uncomfortable he stutters "I see it the same way Lorelai does."

Lorelai grabbed his hand and squeezed it, trying to make him feel a little more comfortable. Spencer noticed this and smiled. "Although there is a lot more to discuss, I think we have to keep it to this for today. For our next appointment I want the both of you to think of three things that changed the most after your friendship turned into a relationship. That's where I want to talk about with you next time."

Both Luke and Lorelai nodded and then stood up, shaking Spencer's hand. "Thank you."

Spencer nodded. "See you next time. And don't forget about those three things."

T.B.C.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: This wasn't an easy chapter for me to write so it took a little longer than I had anticipated but I hope it was worth the wait! Once again thanks to those who read and reviewed the last chapter, and special thanks to Jessi, for once again being a great help with writing this chapter!_

**Chapter 4 – Meddling lives **

"So," Spencer said, when they were all seated again a week later, "last time I asked you to think of three things that changed most after you got together. Who wants to get started?"

Lorelai looked at Luke for a moment and then decided to start herself. "I guess I'll start. I think the thing that changed the most was letting each other in on aspects of our lives that we didn't share. There was a lot we knew about each other, but also a lot we didn't. Also, we had to mingle our two lives and change some of our routine. Which wasn't always as easy."

"So that are two things. Can you tell me some of the things you didn't know about each other?"

"For starters I had no idea Luke went to bed so early. There was this election in town for the new town selectman right after we first started dating. Jackson, the husband of my friend Sookie was running against Taylor and we used the diner as a base for his campaign. Anyway, after Jackson won we had this party at the diner and I felt really bad because Luke hadn't really enjoyed it as much as we did and he was upstairs in his apartment. So I went upstairs with a bottle of champagne and he opened the door in his pajamas and I realized that he was already in bed. It was like 9.30 or something. I knew that he gets up at 4.45 every morning, especially when he has early deliveries but I had no idea he went to bed that early. Of course I never thought about it because how can you get through the day waking up at that impossible time if you go to bed late? Anyway, I had no idea. And while I was standing there, watching him, I also realized that he told me on our first date that he hates champagne. I mean, who hates champagne?"

"Come on, I'm really not the only one who hates champagne." Luke defended himself.

Lorelai smiled. "Of course you're not honey."

"I'm just more of a beer guy."

"Yeah. Although you did try drinking Scotch once when you played golf with my father. That really didn't work for you. My dad got you to agree to franchise your diner, you agreed to shave and he got you an art dealer. Art would have looked so nice in all your new diners."

"I don't know why I agreed. It didn't sound right even when I was drunk."

"Well, at least we convinced my father that it wasn't you."

"Yeah. He somehow seemed to accept that although your mother…."

"Let's not get there again shall we." Lorelai interrupted him. "I know that meeting my parents finally made you realize I was right all those years. All those nights I came to the diner for coffee after Friday night dinner and I sat there at your counter, telling you all my horror stories and you never believed they were all true."

"I did believe you, just, experiencing it was different from just hearing about it. I tried to please your parents but that was just impossible."

Spencer moved his glasses to the point of his nose. "So her parents were a big part in your relationship."

"Well I did write them on my list." Luke stated.

"Good. But I think that right now that's not the subject we want to talk about. I can feel how this is hanging between you and what a big deal this is. So I want to keep this subject for a different session. Lorelai let's get back to your second point. Can you give me some examples about where it was hard to mingle your lives?"

"Well for example the going to bed early thing. Unlike Luke I'm an evening kind of person. I hate getting out of bed early and snooze my alarm clock a dozen times before I get out in the morning. And I definitely don't go to bed at 9.30. But on the nights Luke I and spent the night together, I just went to bed as well. Afraid I would keep him awake if I didn't. Of course I couldn't sleep and got bored and I started reading all the material I could find in his apartment. One night I had to choose between the oven manual and the broiler manual and I decided to read the oven manual because it looked better. Which was a good thing by the way because a couple of days later the oven broke and Luke was having a hard time fixing it so I talked him through it. Then after he found out why I knew all the things I was saying he bought a TV for the bedroom so I could watch late night Jon Stewart."

"Luke, can you give me an example as well?" Spencer asked.

"I remember the morning after we spend the night together at her house for the first time. I was making breakfast but then she walked in and started saying that she thought we'd go to Luke's for breakfast. I argued that I was making the same food I'd be making at the diner but in the end she made me pack everything into small containers and had me prepare the same food at the diner."

"I liked how things were changing, but I didn't want everything to change at the same time. Later on in our relationship I learned to appreciate having Luke's breakfast all for myself at home though. Made me feel all special." Lorelai explained herself.

Spencer smiled, watching the couple interact. "So those little things worked out just fine in the end."

Lorelai smiled back and grabbed Luke's hand in hers, squeezing it. "They sure did."

"And bigger things? Were there parts where you found it really hard to let each other in? And I know about April and that's one subject I want to save until later as well."

Lorelai thought for a moment and then said. "Luke's dark day."

"Your what?" Spencer asked, looking confused.

"The anniversary of my father's death. Every year on that anniversary... I disappear. I don't work. I don't talk to anyone..."

"I knew him for almost 9 years and I not once noticed that he disappeared on the exact same day each year." She looked down, a little embarrassed. Luke grabbed her hand in hers and squeezed it.

"I hadn't told anyone about it until I told you."

"But people knew. Miss Patty told me about when she invited me to her party."

"Oh…" He hadn't realized other people knew about his day.

Lorelai squeezed his hand this time. "It doesn't matter. They respected it. Miss Patty told me that it was no use to ask you because of your dark day. I asked you anyway because I wanted to know more about it. But you dismissed the subject and not brought it up again until the day before, when I separated you from Mrs. Thompson when you were fighting with her about your boat."

"My father's boat." He said. "I wanted to get rid of it, but you stored it into your garage instead."

"And pissing you off as I did. I thought you weren't ready to give the boat up. You kept it in Mrs. Thompson's garage for 15 years. I wanted to do something nice for you, but instead I made your dark day worse. You were so angry. It was our first fight as a couple."

"I didn't mean the things I said. I wasn't myself that day. I just felt like you didn't respect the things I was saying and you weren't listening to me. That you always feel you know things better than I do. And that's true. You partially know me better than I do myself because I wasn't ready to give the boat up. I'm still grateful you made me keep it."

"Really?" She asked, needing to know it for sure.

He nodded. "Absolutely."

"You had the fight that day? So that means you talked to her that day." Spencer noted.

Luke nodded. "I wanted to let her in, but it didn't work out the way I wanted. When I found the boat in her garage, I was so angry."

"But you did came to find me later that evening, when I was in Miss Patty's dance studio."

"I hated how things were between us."

"So you made up that evening. What happened next?" Spencer asked.

"Lorelai went back to the party and I spend the rest of the evening in her garage, looking at the boat and remembering my father. Then after midnight, when my dark day was officially over I snuck into her house and spend the rest of the night with her."

"So in the end you let her in. What about the year following, did you share another dark day together?"

"Things were different that year because I had just found out about April and I had no idea how to tell Lorelai so I felt guilty for not telling her the truth." Luke said, quilt entering his body as he remembered that time, still regretting the way he handled that situation.

"But you let me in that day." Lorelai said. "You spend the night at our house and took me to your parent's graves that morning. Then you requested to spend the afternoon by yourself and took me out that night, taking me to places that reminded you of your father. That is one of my favorite days we spend together." She then shook her head, realizing what he had just said. "Are you saying you let me in on that part of your life because you didn't want to let me in on the April part?" Hurt was evident in her voice.

"No, I let you spend that day with me because I wanted you there." He looked in her eyes directly, trying to reassure her. "Around that time things were different but that day I was really glad you were with me. I needed you that day and I'm glad you spend it with me."

She nodded, although she still wasn't completely convinced. Spencer noticed this. "Let's change the subject because this is leading to something I want to save until later. Luke, why was it so hard for you to let go of that boat?"

Luke raised his shoulders. "I don't know. I just don't really like changes. After my father died I changed his hardware store into a diner because I knew how to cook, but I kept things the same way. I didn't even paint it until Lorelai made me, years later."

"When you were already dating?"

Luke shook his head. "No, a few years before that. Taylor had been bugging me about it for years and she convinced me it would look better with a fresh paint. In the end she even painted it all by herself."

"Only because I had to make up for standing you up on our original appointment."

Luke sighed, not really wanting to remember that day. Spencer noticed this.

"What happened?"

"Let's just say that it was a very bad Friday night dinner at my parents and everything that happened afterwards. But it had nothing to do with Luke. We had picked out the paint colors together and he showed me where his father had written down an order on the wall when he couldn't find a piece of paper. I made sure I didn't paint over that" She sighed. "I really looked forward to doing the painting together with Luke, but I had to do it myself for make up for standing him up. He was really mad. And he had every right to be."

"It's okay." Luke said. "I forgave you."

She nodded and smiled at him. "I know."

Spencer smiled as well before he decided it was time to move on. "We talked about how you learned things about each other that you didn't know yet and how it was to mingle your two lives. What else did you write down on your list?" He looked at Luke directly for this.

"Well, I guess the town had a big influence on our relationship after they found out. Taylor even had a town meeting about the subject."

Spencer raised his eyebrows. "The same Taylor who send you here?"

Luke nodded. "The same man. He thinks he can control everything in town. He made me promise that I would leave town if Lorelai and I would break up. That never happened but he handed out ribbons to divide the town in two when we did break up the first time."

Lorelai nodded. "He made things worse than they already were."

Spencer sighed. "So you had some people against you in this relationship. Taylor, Lorelai's parents, maybe some more of the people in town. That must have been difficult."

"I don't think it really bothered us in the beginning. But yeah, it didn't make things easier. Luke is a private guy and he doesn't like when people mingle in his life and he doesn't like it when people talk about him. It was already a big step going from being friends to being a couple." Lorelai said. "At first I thought people would be happy about it. But they didn't bring it up until that town meeting."

"How did they found out about you?"

"The town?" She asked.

Spencer nodded.

Lorelai smiled, remembering how she walked into the diner that first morning. "Well, after our first date I spend the night at Luke's". She grinned, making Luke blush in return. "I woke up the next morning graving coffee and Luke had no coffee maker in his apartment. So I slipped into his flannel shirt, and let me add, only his flannel shirt and went into the diner, figuring it wouldn't open without him. Boy was I wrong."

"So they realized it when they saw you half naked in the diner?"

"Jeez." Luke muttered.

"Don't be shy hon'. They actually saw me and he is just hearing the story."

"I've heard worse stories, believe me." Spencer said. "Anyway, you were saying that nobody brought up your relationship until the town meeting. What happened there?"

"Taylor started talking about this couple that were local business owners years ago and they fell in love, wand when the split up, the town divided it two. According to Taylor things have never been the same since." Lorelai said.

"He even had charts." Luke added.

"What did you do?" Spencer asked.

"Luke was really pissed. He yelled at Taylor that it was none of his business. That our relationship was between him and me and that everybody else had nothing to do with it." Loerlai said and then giggled. "By pointing at their faces and yelling 'not yours'. You made that quite clear babe."

"Huh?" Spencer asked, confused.

"Not important." Luke said.

"Okay." Spencer said.

Luke sighed. "That's how it is. Taylor thinks he can control every thing in town. It's about time we're doing something against it."

"Jackson tried when he was town selectman but unfortunately he wasn't really suited for the job."

"How about you?" Spencer asked Luke.

"Oh no, absolutely not. I work at the diner and that's more than enough for me. I don't want to control town events. I don't even want to participate."

"You always say that, but you always help out if they need you. You even threw Rory her goodbye party before she left. You care more about the town than you want to admit." Lorelai argued.

"I did it for Rory." He said and then whispered. "And for you."

She laid her hand on his knee and squeezed it. "Thank you." She whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.

Spencer smiled and then checked his watch. "Time is flying when you have fun. I think I have a very clear view on your relationship and the things that changed for you, and what influenced it. Enough to work with for the next few sessions. No homework this time, but I do want you to think about what we've talked about and if you can think of any more big changes, please let me know."

"Wait." Luke said and Spencer looked at him, surprised.

"Sure. What is it?"

"A few years before Lorelai and I were together I lived together with a woman named Rachel. She and I had dated before and she came back to town and moved in with me. Back then I freaked out because she placed the milk at the wrong place. With Lorelai it was different. I liked that she wore my flannel shirts in bed. I build her a shelf so she had something to put her cinnamon toothpaste on the nights she was sleeping over. I bought a coffee maker so she didn't have to sneak into the diner for her morning coffee and I already knew her crazy food habits."

Lorelai nodded, happy that Luke was saying this. "I think what he's trying to say is that even though there were little changes when we got together, it was very easy to bring our lives together."

"Exactly." Luke said. "And it wasn't until we first broke up that I realized how easy that had been."

"We developed a routine without even realizing until it was gone. I never had that with anyone. Sookie once told me that I broke up every relationship before I let things get serious. I guess every relationship besides the one I had with Max, but even I didn't let him in my life. We were engaged, but I never spent a single night in my bed with him. He spent the night once, but I couldn't sleep and I sneaked downstairs and spent the night in Rory's bed. Luke is the first guy I spent the night with in my bed."

Luke nodded. "It wasn't so hard to bring our lives together. Not the way I thought it would be."

"I get it." Spencer said. "Joining your lives wasn't as hard you thought it would be."

"Exactly." Both Luke and Lorelai said.

"I think that's a great conclusion for this session. I know there are tons of things left to talk about but my next client is waiting so I really have to end this. We'll talk again next week."

And with that, another session was over.

T.B.C.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Finally I managed to finish another chapter. I started it weeks ago, then got caught up in my work schedule and finally last Sunday I was able to continue on a very long train trip and finished it yesterday. Jessi, it was really fun to talk about the chapter for real for a change instead of MSN. Thanks for your help, as always!_

_Thanks to those of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. Hope you like this one as well!_

**Chapter 5 Parents **

Another week later they were seated in Dr. Spencer's office again.

"So…" Spencer started. "Last time we discussed how you met and how slowly your friendship turned into something more. I want to use this session to learn something more about your parents. From our previous sessions I learned that your parents had and have a big influence in both your lives. Luke, because your parents aren't among us anymore, I want to start with yours. Can you tell me what your parents are like?"

Talking about his parents has never been easy for Luke. Lorelai knew this and grabbed his hands, squeezing it in encouragement. Luke turned to look at her and saw the compassion in her eyes. This was enough encouragement alone to start talking.

"My parents were amazing people. They cared about me and my sister Liz very much. My mother taught me how to cook and let me help around the house as much as I wanted when I was growing up. My dad worked long hours in the hardware store and wasn't always around, so I felt really important at the time. One evening when I was 12 I said goodnight to my parents and everything was normal. I could have never imagined that when I would wake up the following morning, my mother wasn't with us anymore…"

He swallowed. It had been a long time since he thought about that morning, and he had never talked about it, with no one, not even Lorelai. He had told her stories about his mother once in a while, and that she died in her sleep one night, but never the details.

Spencer noticed Luke's discourage to move on and asked. "What happened that morning?"

Luke swallowed again before he continued. "It was a Sunday morning and we never went to church and as I got older, I started to sleep in a little. I remember Liz walking into my room that morning. It was still dark so I yelled at her that she should let me sleep. When she didn't leave my room like she usually did, I sat up, starting to get angry. That faded away when I saw she was crying. I instantly knew something was wrong and I jumped out of bed and walked to my parent's bedroom. My father was standing there, talking to our primary care physician and when I looked at the bed, I saw a white sheet covering my mother's body."

Luke shook his head, trying to get the images of that night out of his head. Lorelai squeezed his hand tighter, trying hard not to imagine how that must have been for him, finding his mother dead that morning. It was simply too painful.

After a few seconds Luke was able to continue his story. "My father had woken up that morning and found my mother not breathing. Her body was already cold so he knew there was nothing he could do to safe her. Later we found out that it was a pulmonary embolism that killed her. She didn't feel anything. She just went to sleep and never woke up again.

My father was devastated after my mother died and in the beginning it was hard for him to continue life without her. I tried to do as much as I could to help him around the house and the hardware store. After a while things got easier for him. He never looked at another woman again, but he did do the things he used to do before. He became a re-enactor again and he started working on his boat."

"The boat Lorelai stored in her garage all those years later?" Spencer asked.

"The very one."

"How did your father die?"

"He died of lung cancer when I was 25. He left me the hardware store and he made me promise to take care of Liz, and of Louie, his brother."

"That must have been hard."

Luke nodded. "I was 25 and just starting life and suddenly I was left without both my parents and with a huge responsibility."

"That's when you turned the hardware store into a diner?"

"I didn't like the hardware business as much as my father did and I knew how to cook."

"And you thought it would be more fun." Lorelai added with a smile, looking directly in Luke's eyes.

"Yeah, that too." Luke said, smiling slightly as well, touched that Lorelai remembered he once told her that, many years ago.

"What about your sister and your uncle?"

"My sister had gotten pregnant when she was 18. After Jess was born, Jimmy, Jess' father left her. She stayed with my father and me for a while, but after a few months she fell in love with some other punk and moved to New York. After that she dated one guy after the other and there wasn't much my dad or me could do about it. Most of the time after she broke up with whoever she was dating at the time she called for help. Needing a new place to live or money or something like that and I ended up giving her what she wanted."

"And you took Jess in when Liz couldn't take care of him anymore." Lorelai added.

Luke nodded in confirmation.

"And I still remember Louie." Lorelai smiled.

"You met Luke's uncle?" Spencer asked.

"Depends how you take it." Lorelai replied.

Spencer raised his eyebrows, confused.

"My uncle died a couple of years ago." Luke started to explain. "It was my father's wish to have him buried next to him, in Stars Hallow. So I arranged his funeral. Louie was a unusual man and he wanted to be buried with almost everything he owned and I couldn't get the casket to close."

"Luke called me, clearly upset so I drove to the funeral home to help him out. In the end Luke just bought a bigger casket that fit Louie and all the stuff he wanted to be buried with."

"And Lorelai made sure Louie got the funeral my father wanted Louie to have, when the rest of the town wasn't willing to cooperate."

Lorelai raised her shoulders. "It seemed important to you. All I did was make clear to Taylor how much you mean to the town and that they had to set their feelings for your uncle aside and do this for you, and your father."

Luke nodded, still appreciating what Lorelai had done for him back then.

"So you were there for Luke when he needed you?"

Lorelai nodded. "I was glad that I could help him for a change. Most of the time it was Luke helping me, whenever I needed to have something fixed around the house. Also, it was Luke who closed the dinner during dinner rush to get me to the hospital after my father collapsed. He brought me food every day after I broke my leg in yoga class and I wasn't allowed to walk on the cast. And I could go on like this forever."

"It was nothing really." Luke said, embarrassed to be put in the spotlight.

Spencer smiled, watching them interact. The intensity of their relationship became more clear every time he heard them talking. He did realize they had some issues to work out, and that that's why they were here. "Lorelai. Tell me about your parents."

"The relationship I had with my parents was the complete opposite of the one Luke had with his. Even as a young girl I knew that the things my parents wanted for me weren't what I wanted. They didn't give me the space to do the things I wanted. They smothered me.

My father is a business man. He travels a lot and his job means everything to him. He's loves numbers and I have nothing with numbers, so it's safe to say we don't have much in common. I'm sure that I am everything he did not want in a daughter. And it's safe to say I have even less in common with my mother. The things that are important to her, definitely the things I don't want in my life."

"For example?" Spencer pressed.

"My mother lives for the values of the high society. The DAR, all sorts of social events. As a little girl she brought me to these events and I had to sit on a chair the entire afternoon in a dress I hated. I wanted to play but all I could do was sit still and drink tea. My parents find it important to impress other people with the things they have and didn't understand why I don't.

The older I got, the more I rebelled against my parents and their strict rules. In the end this resulted in me getting pregnant at 16, although I don't really blame my parents for that. I do think that maybe things would have turned out different if my parents had given me more space. Not that I regret how things worked out. In the end it gave me an opportunity to get away and to start a live of my own.

After Rory was born my mother interfered with the way I was raising Rory. I couldn't take that anymore and decided to leave. That's how I ended up in Stars Hallow. I found a job as a maid in the independence inn and the owner, Mia, allowed me to live in the tool shed.

After I moved out I only saw my parents on the holidays until Rory got accepted to Chilton and I couldn't afford the tuition. The only thing I could do was go to my parents and beg them for the money. My father was willing to write the check immediately but my mother wanted weekly dinners in return."

"How was it to suddenly have to see your parents on a weekly basis?"

"I hated it. There were many uncomfortable situations where we didn't have much to talk about. My mother still felt the need to control my life and still wanted the wrong things for me.

The craziest thing is that she pointed out to me many times that there was something more between Luke and me than friendship but when we finally got together she had this stupid idea that I should really be with Christopher, Rory's father, and she forced him towards me and with that, she forced Luke and me apart."

"How did that make you feel?"

"Betrayed of course. It took months until I so much as forgave her for what she did. Long after Luke and I had gotten back together. Then a year later they betrayed me again when Rory got into trouble and I went to them for help."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story but to make it short, Rory wanted to drop out of Yale and I went to my parents for help, wanting the three of us to sit down and talk some sense into her. When I came back that evening they had already talked to Rory and decided that it was okay for her to quit school and that she was going to live with them for a while."

Lorelai shook her head. It still hurt to think back to the time when she and Rory were separated. Now it was Luke's turn to squeeze her hand.

"How is your relationship now?" Spencer asked.

"Better than it's been in a long time. I'm still going to Friday night dinner even though I'm not obligated to anymore. It's weird to go there without Rory, but it's also kind of nice to spend time with my parents on my own free will. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be saying this now, I would have called you crazy, but I don't know. It really is nice to talk to my parents once in a while. I'm just afraid that there will be a point where they will do something to set me off again. I can only hope that will never happen."

"How do your parents feel about you and Luke now?"

"They're okay with it. They realized that he's the guy for me." She smiled, feeling the exact same thing.

"Luke, how was it for you when Emily tried to mingle in your relationship?" Spencer asked.

"I tried to understand why she thought that I'm not good enough for Lorelai. I understand that Lorelai and I grew up in complete different worlds, but why was it so bad that we wanted to be together? I tried very hard to please her but I realized that I can't be someone else."

"And I don't want you to be." Lorelai said, once again wanting to make that clear.

"I know." He said, looking directly into her eyes. Then he turned back to Spencer. "Back then I needed time to think. I realized that Christopher will always be in Lorelai's life, and so will Richard and Emily. They are part of her life, whether she wants it or not."

"And you were not sure if you could live with that?"

"At the time I wasn't. But then I realized that I love Lorelai and being apart made us both miserable. One evening Emily came to see me at the diner and told me that I had won. That Lorelai wanted to be with me and that she had to accept that. That there was nothing she could do about it and that she would leave us alone."

"And so you went back to her?"

He nodded. "I went to her house, rang her doorbell and kissed her when she opened the door."

"The best thing I ever found when opening the door." Lorelai said and smiled. Then she added. "After that we talked things through and things were better than they were before."

"And how do you feel about Lorelai's parents now?" Spencer asked Luke.

"I'm still not completely comfortable going there, but we accepted each other for who we are and that's okay. They are Lorelai's parents and I find it important that they have a relationship. After having lost my parents too early in life, I know how important it is to spend time with your family while you still can."

Spencer nodded, happy with that answer. "So I think this is a good point to end this session. I now know what influence your parents had in your lives and a little more about the role Lorelai's parents had in your relationship. There are still a few more subjects we have to discuss, but I really feel that we're making some progress here. I'll see you again next week!

T.B.C.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: First of all, hope you all had a nice Christmas. I had to work Christmas morning, but I had a good time nonetheless. Second, thanks to all who read and reviewed the last chapter. Hope you will enjoy this one as well!! Third, thanks again to Jessi for her input in this chapter!!_

**Chapter 6 - Engagements**

"In the past few weeks we have talked about how your friendship turned into a relationship and how that was for you. Then last week we talked about your parents and the roles they had in your lives, and in your relationship. This week I want to talk about your first engagement. A couple of years I would have asked, Luke how did you propose but times have changed and women can just as well propose as men nowadays. Sometimes they have to take the matter in their own hands to take their relationship a step further. Anyway, who proposed to who?" Spencer asked, another week later.

"I proposed to Luke." Lorelai replied, smiling at Spencer's little speech.

Spencer nodded. "See. Totally normal nowadays. How was that for you Luke? That she proposed to you?"

"It was fine by me." He gave his short reply.

"Good, good. Otherwise you wouldn't have said yes of course. But still, didn't you feel like it should have been you? That she stole your moment?"

"Not at first. But then Patty and Babette were all over me saying they felt sorry for me that my moment was stolen. Then I bought a ring for her and I gave it to her in the full moonlight and I still had my moment."

Spencer nodded again, writing something down on his notepad. Then he turned to Lorelai. "Why did you propose to Luke? Did you feel like he was waiting too long or that he was never going to pop the question? And how did you propose? Did you prepare a romantic moment or did you just ask him without giving it too much thought?"

"You remember that I told you last week that my parents betrayed me when Rory dropped out of college? That I went to their house and had decided she was going to drop out of college and live with them for a while?"

"Yes." Spencer nodded.

"After that I drove around for a while, sad about the things I lost and finally ended up at the diner. Luke was the only person I could still trust and I needed someone to comfort me. So I walked into the diner and told Luke what happened and then he started ranting about how we were going to kidnap Rory from my parents and drive her to school, making sure she would stay there. Being with her at all times so she couldn't run away. He would take one shift, I would take the other. And I sat there, watching him going on and on and all I could do was think about how much I loved that man standing in front of me and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. So when he finally finished his rant and waited until I said something. I said 'Luke will you marry me?'"

"What did you say?" Spencer asked Luke.

"I said 'yes.'"

"And then I asked if he was sure, because I hadn't expected him to answer so fast and he said yes again, and I asked once more if he needed some time to think and he said no. So then we were like, what now?"

"What now?" Spencer asked, confused.

"I felt like we had to do something to make it official. So we were standing there and it was a bit awkward and then we decided that we were going to toast to our new engagement. Only Luke had no liquor in the diner so we had to go and buy some. Of course nothing was open anymore because it is Stars Hollow, but then we decided to go to Doose's market because there was this bike tournament going around in town that still wasn't over so Taylor was still there.

At first he wasn't willing to let us in. Told us to come back at 6 when he opens but when we told what happened, he allowed us to go in. But the bikers had bought every alcohol in the store. All he had was some cheap alcohol-free champagne that really wasn't good enough for our celebration. But then he thought of this case of Zima in the back so we bought that. Then we went outside and I led Luke to the gazebo in the middle of town square. It was decorated with Christmas lights and as it was really dark, it was so romantic. We toasted with the Zima and then finally sealed our engagement with a kiss."

"All on the night you were betrayed by your parents and all this bad things happened with your daughter?" Spencer asked.

"Well yeah. I know it sounds like bad timing, but I had a really bad night until I got to Luke's and I really needed to not think about it. I knew it was still there and that it wouldn't go away, but this thing Luke and I had was for real, and I wanted to celebrate that."

"I understand." Spencer said. "What did you do next?"

"We went back to the diner and had sex." She stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You did what!" Spencer said.

"We went to Luke's apartment and had sex." She said, a little more detailed this time.

"Lorelai." Luke hissed, not comfortable to talk about that.

"What?" She asked in an innocent voice. "He's almost 60 years old. He knows what sex is."

Spencer smiled. "I think that is a save assumption."

"See." She said and crossed her arms in front of her, like a little girl who finally proved she was right. Then she turned back to Spencer, deciding to tease Luke a little. "It was really good sex too. I mean, we had or share in good sex ever since we started dating, but there was something special that night…"

"Lorelai." Luke hissed again, interrupting her story. "I am not talking about this."

"Well you don't have to talk because I was talking. It's only polite if you keep quiet and just listen. Didn't your parents taught you it's impolite to speak before your turn?"

He shook his head in response, angry at her.

"Anyway," Lorelai continued, ignoring the expression on Luke's face. "I'm not sure what it was that made things so special that night. But we really took the time and spend hours making love. After that I was exhausted and I didn't really realize that Luke said that he bought us a house and then sold it again. And that he wanted to have kids and buy furniture and plants."

"Plants?" Spencer asked, confused again.

"Yeah that's what he said." She said, pointing towards Luke. "He was rambling about a house and kids and told me that I shouldn't forget about the plants."

"Plants are very important in a house." Luke replied.

"Plants?" Spencer asked again.

"Oh just drop it." Luke said, annoyed.

"Tell me some more about that night." Spencer then asked.

"Well it just was really special. Of course we had nights like that before. We slept together after our first date and it was amazing. Not that I usually sleep with guys on a first date, but Luke and I had been dancing around each other for so long and we waited an entire summer before we finally went on that date so we really had it coming." She turned to her side and saw that Luke's face was turning different shades of red. Deciding to ignore that she continued.

"With Luke it was different than with any guy I ever dated. With him I learned the difference between having sex and making love. Most of the time we make love although we did have sex as well. Like the time we had a quickie in the storage room and another time in my office when Luke stopped by to fix the banister. And I remember this one time we had to go off the nearest exit when we were driving home from Woodbury after having dinner there, because we really couldn't make it home. And.."

She stopped when Luke suddenly jumped up and walked out of Spencer's office, throwing the door shut behind him with a loud 'bang.'

"Oh." She said, suddenly really embarrassed and looked at Spencer. "I think I should go after him. I know he doesn't like to talk about these things in public. I should have just kept my mouth shut." She sighed and stood up.

"It's okay." Spencer said. "You obviously don't have any problems in that direction so let's leave the subject to this."

She nodded and then went out to find Luke.

He wasn't in the waiting room so she went out and found him next to his truck, pacing around angrily.

She watched him for a minute and suddenly realized that she had walked outside without her jacket. Shivering she closed her vest in front of her, holding her arms tight around her chest, hoping to stay warm. Then she approached Luke.

"I'm sorry." She immediately said.

He just huffed. Not wanting to talk to her yet.

"Luke, come back inside. It's really cold and we're not wearing our coats."

He looked up and noticed her lips were turning a bit blue. "You should have put on your jacket before you went outside."

"Just come back inside. I shouldn't have said those things. Spencer said we don't ever have to talk about it again either because obviously we don't have a problem in that direction." She winked at him, hoping that would make things better.

"This is something between you and me. There is enough embarrassing stuff we have to talk about because Taylor won't give us the stupid license without a letter. I agreed to come here for us. Because I want us to get married, but I refuse to talk about things like this."

"I know that."

"You don't tell someone where we have sex and how. Then you can just as well tell him that you told me on the way here that you are wearing the red lingerie I like so much and that we will most likely do it the second we get home. And that we most likely won't make it to our bedroom."

"I could have told him that," she said, flashing him a smile. That he was saying this and that he still wanted to have sex with her when they'd be coming home later meant he wasn't so angry anymore.

"Well it's good you didn't," he grunted.

She smiled. "Come on, let's go inside. We're paying an awful lot of money to just stand here on the street during our session."

He nodded. "Yeah. Let's go back inside. But…"

"I promise." She said, knowing exactly what he was going to say. "I won't ever say anything like that to Spencer again."

Satisfied with the answer he put his arm around her and pulled her a little closer to his body so they could warm each other a little and whispered, "I really can't wait to get that lingerie of off you."

"So everything is good?" Spencer asked when they came back in.

They both nodded and sat down again.

"Good. Earlier you were saying that Luke bought a house without telling you?"

Lorelai nodded. "The old Twickham house. It was this big house in Stars Hollow that was owned by this old man, and after he died it was turned into a museum. After that it went up for sale and apparently Luke was interested in it. He went and bought it without telling me and then got rid of it again before I knew about it."

"Why did you buy that house?" Spencer asked Luke.

"I always liked that house when I was growing up so when it became available I had to fight about it with Kirk, who also wanted it and apparently had a lot of money we didn't know about. I wanted to live in that house with Lorelai and I thought it would be nice for kids to grow up in. But in the end I realized that Lorelai didn't want to move so we did remodeling on her house and made it bigger."

"Why didn't you tell her about it and made the decision together at the time?"

He raised his shoulders. "I wasn't sure if we were ready for that yet. And then I wasn't sure at all if it was what Lorelai wanted so I backed out and gave the house back to Taylor. And then that evening Lorelai came to me and proposed so suddenly we were engaged."

"How did it make you feel, that he made a big decision like buying a house without telling you?" Spencer asked to Lorelai.

"I didn't like it. Buying a house is a life-time decision and something you have to make together. But he had already backed out when he told me so we still had to decide where we were going to live and at first I was open to living there but I didn't want to get rid of my house and I did not really like the idea of anyone else living there either. And that's when Luke suggested remodeling it. I also made him promise never to make such decisions without me again."

"What happened next?"

"The few months following we spend remodeling the house together. Sometimes we slept in his apartment above the diner, other nights we spend in my house where we had put the bed in the living room. During that time Rory and I weren't talking so it was nice to have someone around."

"So you did a lot of things together?"

"We did. For example Luke became the sponsor of the local girl's soccer team and ordered shirts and went to the game together. Even Paul Anka had his own shirt."

"Paul Anka?"

"My dog." She smiled.

"Ah. I see." Spencer replied. Then he asked. "You also planned the wedding together?"

Lorelai shook her head. "No. I didn't want to plan the wedding while Rory and I weren't speaking. I wanted to wait until things were okay between the two of us before I could marry Luke."

"I understand." Spencer replied. "So you planned the wedding after that happened?"

"Yes. I thought that it was going to be a lot of work to plan the wedding but actually I planned the entire wedding in one da. Everything just came to me and it was all planned within a day."

"You did that together?"

She shook her head again. "No. I planned the wedding together with Sookie."

"And that was okay with you?" Spencer asked Luke.

"Yeah. Whatever she wanted was fine with me."

"But then April came into his life and we started drifting apart. And then he wanted to postpone the wedding." She sighed, still regretting everything that happened afterwards.

"That's a whole different subject. Something we do not have enough time to discuss anymore so we will save that for next week. I think that we have talked about a lot today and that we should leave it at this for now. I'm sure my next patient is already waiting."

Both Luke and Lorelai nodded, stood up and took their coats outside this time.

T.B.C.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: First of all, happy new year everyone! I hope 2008 will bring a lot of good things for you all! Second, thanks to those of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. I always appreciate your feedback! And last, as always, lots of thanks to Jessi who always manages to point out the exact things my chapters need to put all the dots together. Your awesome!_

**Chapter 7 - April **

"As I told you last week, I want to use this session to talk about April." Spencer said, when they were seated in his office once again.

Lorelai nodded and then glanced at Luke. He was looking down and fidgeting with his hands, obviously nervous for what was coming.

Spencer noticed this but decided the best approach was to just start talking and hopefully Luke would be getting more comfortable within time. "Luke, why don't you start at the beginning. Tell me about the day you first met her."

He took a second to control himself before he started talking. "I was working in the diner, trying to get Caesar to do his job properly and then this girl walked in with a weird bicycle helmet and she asked if I'm Luke Danes. I told her I am and to sit down and that I would be with her in a second. When I get to her she's sitting down and I asked her what she wanted to order and she replied by saying she didn't want to order anything. I told her to take off the helmet and after she does she says she wants one of my hairs with the root. When I asked her what for she started to explain that she goes to middle school in Woodbury and that she needs it for her science project in which she's going to take hair from 3 men and do DNA tests to find out who her father is. Then she started babbling some more and when I told her 'no' she just grabbed one of my hairs, tooks a picture of me and left."

"What did you do?"

"At first nothing. I mean, what could I do? I waited until the 16th and went to the science fair. I looked around and found the girl that was in my diner a few days earlier."

"Hold on a second." Spencer interfered. "After you first met her, didn't you think of telling Lorelai? Asking for her perspective the next time you saw her, or even calling her after the girl left your diner?"

Luke shook his head. "I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. At the time Lorelai had enough problems of herself, I didn't want to bother her with mine."

"But don't you think she could have helped?" Spencer asked. He looked at Lorelai for a minute and saw she was trying hard not to interfere. Wanting to hear what Luke had to say.

"At the moment I was so shocked that I didn't know what to think of the whole situation. I had no idea who the girl was or who her mother could be. I just wanted to make sure if it even was a possibility I was her father before talking to Lorelai."

Spencer nodded, understanding. "So you went to the school that day and looked for April. Then what?"

"She was standing behind her booth and behind her were three pictures. Two of men I don't know and one of me. The other photos were crossed out so I realized that meant I was her father. She asked me if I wanted to read her report. I looked through it but it didn't make much sense to me but on the cover was her name. April Nardini. That's when I realized her mother was Anna Nardini. A women I dated 12 years before and hadn't seen since."

"Then what?"

"I asked her if she wanted to go eat some ice cream but she had to stay at the fair so I just left and went back to the diner."

"Were you planning on telling Lorelai after that?"

"At first yes. But that evening she came running into my diner yelling that Rory was back. So I didn't want to ruin her moment."

"So you waited?"

"Yes. But the longer I waited, the harder it became to tell her. There always was something. Thanksgiving for example. And another time I went to her house determined to tell her the truth, but then she walked down the stairs in her wedding dress."

At this point Lorelai could no longer remain silent. "So in all those months there was no right moment to tell me?" She asked, upset. "And I had to find out myself? From April?"

"It wasn't supposed to go like this." Luke said, exasperated. "I wanted to tell you. I really did."

"Then why didn't you?" She asked, really wanting to understand.

"Because I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that suddenly I had a 12 year old daughter I never knew about. At one point in my life I never wanted to have kids, until I met you. I thought that if I ever became a father it would be to our kid. But then suddenly I had a daughter and I had to learn how to be a father and how to become a part of her life."

"I could have helped you with that. I wish you would have let me help you," she said.

"I know that. But I just had to deal with it myself first." He looked at Spencer for help.

Deciding this was a good moment to cut in he asked. "Can you explain why?"

"I'm not good with changes. Everyone knows that. You heard the stories. When I turned the hardware store into a diner I only changed the necessary. I didn't even paint. The sign is still outside, the office is still the same. On the wall underneath the counter there is still that order my father once wrote there when he couldn't find a paper. And I waited over 8 years until I was finally willing to admit how I felt about Lorelai. I like things slow. And suddenly I had this huge thing to deal with and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I wanted to share it with Lorelai but I just couldn't. I know I should have though. And if I could do it again, I would tell her immediately but I didn't and I can't take that back." Then he turned to her. "I'm sorry."

"I know that." She replied. Feeling a bit calmer now, and grabbed his hand in hers. Squeezing it lightly. "But it just really hurt when I saw this girl into your diner, telling me that you were her father. It really made me feel as if what we had meant nothing to you. As if I meant nothing to you. Before we got together you told me everything."

He looked directly into her eyes. "I loved you so much that I didn't want to hurt you. You were so happy at the time and I didn't want to cause you any pain by telling you I had a daughter. I know that I ended up hurting you even more in the end by not telling you, and there's nothing I regret more."

She nodded. Understanding. "I could feel something was wrong but I just couldn't figure out what it was."

"Why didn't you ask me about it? Before, you bugged me just as long until I told you what was wrong."

She let his hand go and looked down, a bit ashamed. "I wanted everything to be perfect. Rory and I finally reconciled and I was able finally able to plan our wedding so I just ignored the feeling that something was wrong."

Luke put a finger under her chin and made her look at him. "So we both made mistakes."

She nodded and sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry I waited 2 months to tell you about April."

"It isn't even so much that he waited two months to tell me. I could understand that." She replied. "What hurt the most is that you kept her from me. Everyone was able to meet her but me." The hurt was unmistakably in her voice.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"Why didn't you want Lorelai to be around April?" Spencer asked.

"Because I had to figure things out by myself first. It was going too fast."

"Can you elaborate that?"

"Rory was 21 years old at the time. Lorelai knew how to be a mother for 21 years. I was new at the whole father thing. I wanted to figure it out on my own. I wanted to be a good father, and show Lorelai that I could do it."

"I never expected you to be good at it right away. Do you think I was super mom right after Rory was born? It took me 21 years to get where I was at the moment. And had you forgotten the months before, when my daughter refused to talk to me? She went off to steal a yacht, got herself arrested and had to do 300 hours of community service. She dropped out of Yale. What a good mother I was." She replied by looking directly into his eyes. Trying to make him understand that the parenting thing was just as difficult for her.

Luke sighed. "You are a great mother."

"And I knew you were going to be a great father." She squeezed his knee. "You are a great father."

He nodded. "I just needed time to prove that. I knew you were going to be great with April. And all the girls are still talking about the birthday party you threw her."

"You let Lorelai throw April a birthday party?" Spencer asked, curious.

He shook his head. "No. I wanted to do it all by myself but it was a disaster. I thought the girls would enjoy themselves but they were bored. So in the end I called Lorelai for help, and she saved the party. She took the girls to the beauty shop and let them have makeovers. Then she turned the party into a sleepover. It was a huge success."

"What happened after the party? Were things better once you let Lorelai into April's life?"

He shook his head again. "They went back to how things were before. And that's when Lorelai started avoiding me and finally showed up at my diner days later with her ultimatum."

"Why?" Spencer asked Lorelai.

"Because I thought that after Luke saw how well I got along with April, he would let me into her life more. But that didn't happen. I needed time to think after that and finally realized that it would never happen for us. So I went to him and asked him to elope. I couldn't wait any longer. I had to know if our relationship was going anywhere, because at the moment it wasn't. I wanted things to move forward and I wanted to marry him right that moment. So I went to him and asked him to take me to Maryland so we could get married right away."

"And if he didn't?"

"It would be over between us."

"You were willing to give everything up, just like that?" Spencer asked.

Lorelai shook her head. "No. Yes. I don't know. I wasn't thinking. I just thought that if I went to him, he would at least talk to me. But he just stood there, and let me walk away."

"I went to you the next day. After I thought about it," Luke said.

Tears filled her eyes. "I know." She sighed. "God I made a mess."

Spencer looked at the couple and realized this is where he hit their sore spot. "Lorelai, why was it okay for you to not set a date for the wedding when you were waiting for Rory to come back, but did you end your relationship with Luke when he postponed your wedding."

Her head shot up and hurt filled her eyes. "It wasn't like that. I waited patiently for months. But nothing was happening. We were only drifting further apart. And I thought our problems would be solved once we were married. That I wouldn't lose him completely."

"How do you feel about that now?"

She wiped at her eyes furiously. "I now know that it was a mistake. I knew not to push Luke, but I saw my life falling apart in front of me. All I really wanted my whole life was the whole package. And it wasn't until Luke and I started dating that I thought I would get it. He's the only guy I really saw myself getting married to. Even when I was engaged to Max, I never really saw what our future together would be like. I didn't saw myself getting old with him. But with Luke I did. I imagined what our kids would be like. How it would be when we got older. I even saw our grandkids."

"And so in the end you married Christopher." Luke retorted.

Lorelai closed her eyes and her voice broke. "Look how that turned out. It was the biggest mistake in my life. I…"

Spencer raised his hand, indicating for her to stop talking. "That's a whole different subject. I want to talk about that, but not now. Today is about April."

They both nodded and looked at each other. Luke's heart broke when he saw the tears in her eyes and he raised his thumb to wipe them away carefully. She let her hand linger against his palm for a while, allowing the heat from his body to calm her. In her lap his other hand found her and he squeezed it. Slowly a smile appeared on her face and she let out a sigh. "Thank you." She whispered, so softly Spencer couldn't hear it. He just nodded in return and finally let her head go, but kept her hand in his.

Spencer looked through his notes while Luke was comforting Lorelai. Finally he looked up and studied the couple in front of him. "There's something I don't understand. You were friends for 8 years before you started dating, but in the end it's a 12, 13 year old girl who drives you apart. What do you think really was the problem here? What should you have done differently?"

"I guess I should have let Lorelai in." Luke said.

"And I should have given him more space when he needed it." Lorelai replied.

Spencer shook his head. "As that it is true, I don't think that's the bigger issue here. Lorelai, before you and Luke started dating, who do you went to when you had a problem, or needed someone to vent to?"

"To Luke." She said, starting to realize where Spencer was going.

"And Luke, who do you went to with such problems?"

"Lorelai." He replied, starting to get it as well.

"And after you started dating. Do you still went to Lorelai when you had problems like this?"

He shook his head. "I guess not."

"And you?" He asked Lorelai. "Did you still went to Luke?"

"Only sometimes. Most of the time I went to Rory, or Sookie for that matter."

"Why?" Spencer asked.

They both looked down and remained silent for some minutes. Lorelai was the first to look up. "One day we had a fight. We had Jackson and Sookie over for dinner and for the first time in months Christopher called. I heard his message on the answering machine and stopped it the second I realized Luke was there. He was so mad but he wouldn't talk to me because we had visitors. So we had dinner but ended up having that fight anyway and Luke stormed out.

Later I found him in his apartment and I told him that once we were married, he couldn't run to his clubhouse every time we had a fight. I explained to him what happened and he pulled me in his lap and made me promise that we would tell each other everything."

"But you didn't."

She shook her head. Sad. "No we didn't. He didn't tell me about April."

"And you didn't tell him how that made you feel?"

"No I didn't." She sighed. "I now know I should have."

Spencer nodded. "Yes you should have." He looked down at his notes once again before looking up. After a few seconds he said. "I don't think April really was the problem in your relationship. It was because of her your real problem came into perspective. How were you supposed to share your life together when you weren't willing to let each other in on every little aspect of your lives? Or I probably should say the big things. It looks like you were better at communicating before you got together than afterwards. Which is weird, because you would think you would have grown accustomed to talking to each other that it shouldn't have been a problem. Most new couples have to learn to tell each other everything, but you were already used to it. So why did it stop once you became a couple?"

Luke and Lorelai looked at each other, knowing that Spencer was right. "I don't know." She finally said.

Spencer expectantly looked at Luke, who raised his shoulders in response. "Maybe because once we were a couple most of those things involved us."

Lorelai nodded. "The second night after Luke and I broke up the first time I called him. I was wallowing and I was feeling depressed and I really needed a friend. Rory had been there before but I sent her back to school. I didn't want her to miss more classes because of me. So I called the only person I could think of. I started rambling over the phone, referring to one of my favorite movies, the way we were, where Katie and Hubble broke up and she asked him to come over because she needed her best friend. And he did. I asked Luke to do the same and I knew he would come as well. Once I put the phone down I snapped out of my daze and realized what I had done and ran to his apartment, taking the tape from his answering machine, hoping he didn't hear the message. But apparently we missed each other on the way there and I finally ran into him on my front lawn, and it felt so awkward. That's when I realized I had not only lost my boyfriend, but also my best friend."

Spencer nodded, understanding. "And afterwards, when you got back together?"

"We were more a couple than best friends. Of course he was a great support during the whole time Rory and I were apart and he really was my friend during that, but other things that bothered me, especially those that involved him, I talked about with Sookie and with Rory. And in the end I even told my mother."

"But never Luke."

She shook her head. "No. I let him know I wasn't happy with the situation some times, but I never really explained it to him. Not in so much words."

"So how was he supposed to know?"

She glanced at Luke and then back at Spencer. "He used to know when something was bothering me. I don't know. Maybe I expected him to just know that it was bothering me. That it was killing me that he left me out of April's life, and with that a huge part of his life."

"And it never occurred to you that maybe he didn't?"

"No. Not until it was too late."

"And you, Luke? Did you realize you were hurting Lorelai?"

"Part of me was. But another part of me was so involved with the whole situation that I didn't really thought of it. I figured she understood how I felt and was willing to give me the time I needed. I didn't realize that was a mistake until she finally pointed it out during her ultimatum. But then it was already too late."

"How do you see the future?" Spencer asked. "What do you want for you and Lorelai?"

He turned to look at Lorelai when he spoke. "I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. I want to live with her. And if still possible, I want a family with her. I want a house that's big enough to have spare bedrooms for Rory and April so they always have their own space when they come over."

"And Lorelai, what do you want for you and Luke?"

Lorelai kept the eye contact with Luke when she replied. "The same. I want to be a part of April's live. I want to really get to know her. I want to spend time with her when Luke's working and I want the three of us to do things together. Preferably the four of us, if Rory is there as well. I'm willing to move to a bigger house. Two years ago I wasn't ready for that but I am now. I'm willing to sell my house and have a young family make a new start in mine. I want a new start for me and Luke. I want us to get married and I want us to have our middle. Our whole package." She felt him squeeze her hand again and she smiled.

"For all that to work, you have to be willing to communicate together. Are you willing to do that?"

"Yes." They both replied at the same time, and then turned to look at Spencer again.

"The first step was coming here. I know that the initial reason you came here is because you need a letter from me to get your marriage license. But I really hope that you see that talking about things that are bothering you, is really good for your relationship."

The both nodded again.

"Good." Spencer glanced at his watch and saw the hour had already passed. "We're running late so we have to end this conversation. Next week we are talking about Christopher. But for now I want to give you an assignment. Every day I want you to take half an hour to just talk to each other. This can be during a meal you share together, or together on the couch at night. Or even in bed before you go to sleep. But you have to use a full 30 minutes a day to talk to each other. Tell each other about the things you did that day. Tell each other what is bothering you, what's going on in your life. No distractions from a TV or a radio. Just the two of you, talking, communicating.

If you find it hard to determine how long 30 minutes is, you can use a timer so you will get a signal once the 30 minutes are over. Then next week, when we meet again I want you to tell me how this was for you. Those 30 minutes each day. And there can't be any excuses for it not to happen, because this is really important. And if there are subjects you feel you can't talk about together, please write them down and bring them here next week, so maybe I can help."

"Okay." Luke said.

"Thank you." Lorelai said. And then they stood up, both ready to start their assignment.

T.B.C.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Once again thanks to all of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. It means a lot to me to hear what you are thinking! And as always thanks to Jessi for her input. _

**Chapter 8 Christopher**

"Last week I gave you an assignment." Spencer started this week's session. "Tell me how that went."

Luke and Lorelai looked at each other with a smile.

"I take it, it went very well." Spencer said, when they both remained silent.

Lorelai nodded eagerly. "The first time we set an alarm just to be sure we'd make the thirty minutes required. But we soon found out we didn't need that alarm at all, and thirty minutes wasn't as much as we thought it would be. The further the week went on, the longer we found ourselves talking. Last Saturday we had dinner together. Luke made this wonderful spaghetti with an amazing Bolognese sauce and apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert and we were talking about Rory and April and about the inn and the diner and about many other things and suddenly I wondered what time it was and when I checked the clock on the microwave I realized it was almost eleven o clock."

"I'm very pleased to hear that." Spender said. "So tell me what you will do next week."

"We already discussed that." Luke said. "We decided that we want to continue this. It was really nice to sit down and spend those minutes together, just the two of us."

"Exactly." Lorelai added, and grabbed Luke's hand. Squeezing it hard. "We know that if we maybe one day get a kid together we won't have exactly 30 minutes, but the important thing is that we're talking. It made me realize how much I missed talking to him about everything. It's stupid we stopped that once we got together, because I always liked talking to him before. I knew he was always there to listen to me."

"And if she kept quiet long enough, she would always listen to me as well."

Spencer smiled. "I'm very happy to hear that. And you're right, if you have kids you probably won't have as much time for each other, but then it's even more important to keep communicating. If you're mad, please tell the other that you are and why, because no matter how well you understand each other, you're no psychics and the other can't guess what's going on in your mind."

The both nodded in agreement.

"Good, now that's settled, I want move on to today's subject. Christopher." The second those words left his mouth he saw the couple in front of them tense visibly. Lorelai's hand slipped from Luke's and she sat up straight, crossing her arms in front of her chest as if bracing herself for what was coming next. And Luke suddenly found the piece of desk in front of him very interesting. Seeing that Spencer realized what a big issue this was still hanging between them. But he couldn't help them unless he knew the entire story. "Lorelai, tell me how you met Christopher."

Lorelai closed her eyes for a second and sighed deeply. Then she looked up at Spencer. "I've known him for so long, I don't even remember when I first met him. His parents were friends with my parents for a long time so we met at functions occasionally. We became friends in junior high and in high school we became a couple. We spend a lot of time together and fantasized how it would be to escape our parent's world together. We talked about going to Europe together and leave everything behind. Back then I really hated everything that my parent's world held. The stupid functions, the kind of behavior they expected from us, and Christopher hated it just as much as I did. We rebelled against our parents together. We snuck out of the house to go to parties we weren't allowed to attend. We snuck alcohol into the house and drank secretly in our rooms or on my balcony. Sometimes smoking as well although I didn't really like that. The older we got, the closer we became."

"How about school?"

"I always paid attention in school because the sooner I could go to college, the sooner I would get out of the house. I really wanted to go to Harvard and Christopher was supposed to go to Princeton, just like his father and grandfather. In a way saying I wanting to go to Harvard was rebelling against my parents as well because my father wanted me to go to Yale, where he went. My mother went to Smith college and met my father at Yale."

"But you never went to college because you ended up pregnant."

Lorelai nodded. "Well I went to community college when I got older, but anyway. I was almost 16 when I found out I was pregnant. We were young and careless and didn't use condoms all the time I guess it was inevitable. Once I found I was pregnant I kept it a secret at first, but my mother found out when I couldn't fit in my coming out dress anymore. Lucky for me I didn't have to go to the debutant ball when they found out I was pregnant, but everything changed after that.

My parents wanted us to move in with them together. We were supposed to get married and Christopher was supposed to start working for my father's firm. He was willing to do it, but I wasn't. I knew it wouldn't be right for us to get married so I refused.

After Rory was born Chris asked me to marry him again. But I knew it wasn't right. We were too young and we already had this huge responsibility. Adding a marriage that we weren't ready for would only make things worse. So I went home with Rory alone and in the end took her to Stars Hallow to start our own life."

"How did Christopher feel about that?"

"He never said a thing. We hardly ever saw him when we were living with my parents. He was still in school and was going to start college after that. He called once in a while, sometimes sent her a post card. The first time he came to visit us in Stars Hallow was when Rory was 16. She'd seen him a few times at holidays at my parent's house. She one time spent a weekend with him when she was 13, but I ended up picking her up early because she felt homesick. Christopher didn't even seem to care.

He called her once a week. Or at least he promised he would but most of the time he didn't. And we never knew how to reach him. He moved around a lot and he always forgot to give us his most recent address or phone number. And the amount of times he forgot her birthday…."

"That must have been hard on you."

"It was hard to see my daughter disappointed over and over again. I was used to it and it proved that I was right not to marry him when my parents wanted us to all those years ago. It wouldn't have lasted. And it didn't last when we finally did got married."

"That you got married in the end shows that you got closer within time."

"Maybe a little. We at least became friends. The first time we started dating again was when Rory was 17. I thought it was a good time to start a relationship with him. He was much more responsible and seemed really committed. He promised Rory he was going to marry me. But in the end his ex-girlfriend got pregnant and he left us for her. He didn't want to make the same mistake twice and went back to her.

They got married but their marriage didn't last for long. Sherry wasn't cut out to be a mother and in the end moved to Paris and left the baby with Christopher. I went over there to help him a few times. He didn't know how to do it and I guess that's when we became friends again. Then his father died and he inherited a huge amount of money. After the funeral I went to his house and drank tequila with him to keep his mind of things and he wanted to use his money to help out Rory and pay for Yale."

"Did you tell Luke that Christopher was back in your life at that point?"

She shook her head, disappointed in herself. "I should have. But I didn't see any harm in it. I was just helping out a friend that needed me in hard times. It wasn't until Christopher showed up at my parent's vow renewal that I realized my mistake and I ended up telling Luke. Then I found out what my mother's intentions were and you know what happened afterwards."

"I always knew that Christopher was a part of Lorelai's life and he should be as he is Rory's father." Luke said, and looked at Lorelai. "I knew that one day he would come between us and that day I was proven right."

She shook her head. "Only because we let him. Him and my mother. He wasn't the man I wanted in my life. The man I wanted to be with was you."

"And yet in the end he's the man you married." The pain was unmistaken in his voice.

Before Lorelai had a chance to reply Spencer cut in. "But that was over a year later. I now know what happened between the two of you in between, but I also want to know what your relationship with Christopher was in that period." Spencer looked directly at Lorelai.

"At first I cut him out of my life completely. It wasn't until that evening he left that message on our answering machine that I heard from him again. That resulted in the fight I told you about last week, when Sookie and Jackson were over for dinner. After that he wanted to be a part in Rory's life and that was fine with me. He was her father after all. At first that was all there was. His relationship with Rory and an occasional phone call related to her. But for some reason he just entered my life when Luke and I drifted apart."

"As a coincidence?"

"Yes I think so. At least for me it was. He was there for me when I was having a rough time. He took me home after Lane's wedding."

"What happened at that wedding." Luke asked. "I know something happened, but nobody was ever willing to tell me. Not even Kirk."

"I wanted to go to the wedding alone because you were on that field trip with April, but Mrs. Kim didn't allow me to come to the wedding without a date. In the end Christopher was there so I took him. It went wrong at the party. I was completely wasted on all the tequila shots I had and I didn't really know what I was doing anymore. It was time for the toasts and suddenly I found myself on stage. I started rambling about how great it was that Lane got married and about how hard it is to get married. And then I started rambling about how it was never going to happen for me. And how everybody could do whatever they wanted on June 3rd, because I wouldn't get married that day.

Rory and Christopher took me off the stage at some point and dragged me home. It wasn't until I woke up with a giant hangover the next morning that I realized my mistake."

Then she turned to Luke. "I was so embarrassed that I said all those things in front of everyone. I went to talk to Miss Patty that afternoon and made her promise to me that you wouldn't find out. She spread the word, and everybody kept their promise. I didn't want to push you. I wanted to give you all the time you needed and I didn't want you to know how hurt I was. And I did, but I didn't want you to find out that way, so I just made sure it went away."

"So you just came to me with the ultimatum a few weeks later. As if that would make things better." Luke replied while looking down.

A few tears sprang to her. "I didn't think it would make things better, but I also didn't want things to get worse. I just didn't see how thing would ever get better for us and I at the moment I thought it was the only thing I could do. A last effort to try and make things right. I definitely know now that it was a mistake, but I can't take it back. I would do anything to take it back, that and the mistakes I made afterwards."

"You cheated on me Lorelai." He said, looking directly at her now.

She shook her head as the tears escaped from her eyes. "No! I know you feel like I did but for me we were over. That doesn't mean that it wasn't a mistake and that I don't regret sleeping with Christopher that night. It was a mistake to go there but it was the only place I could think of going. I needed a friend to comfort me but instead he took advantage of me. I'm a grown woman and I can make my own choices so I know it was just as much my fault as it was his, but I do blame him for leading me to his bed that night. I just didn't want to feel anymore. And at the moment I didn't but the next morning when I woke up in his bed, naked, I did feel and all the pain came back. I knew that by making that mistake I lost every change on ever being with you." She furiously wiped her tears away, wishing they would stop falling.

"But I didn't know we were separated so for me it still feels as if you were cheating on me."

"I know." She let a sob escape from her lips and was annoyed she couldn't stop her tears from falling. "I know that okay. And I would do anything to take it back but I can't." She sighed and took a few seconds to compose herself. After a few seconds she said. "We both made mistakes and I wish we could do it all over again but we can't. We have to live with the mistakes we made Luke. We have to forgive it each other for those mistakes, otherwise this isn't going to work. I don't see how we can get married and happily spend the rest of our lives together if this remains hanging between us. I know we can't."

"But I did forgive you. A long time ago."

"Are you sure about that Luke?" Spencer asked. "You still seem so mad."

Luke's head shot up at Spencer's words.

"Lorelai is right. You have to find a way to forgive each other and move past the whole situation. You both made mistakes and I think you're so mad at the whole Christopher situation because you've always felt threatened by him. And in the end you feel that's exactly what broke up you even though that's not true. The two of you are both equally to blame for your break-up. Last week we talked about a big part of your problem and I believe that if you had both been honest with your feelings the whole time, it never would have gotten this far and Lorelai would have never slept with Christopher and wouldn't have married him for that matter."

Luke sighed. "I know that. I just…"

Lorelai looked directly into his eyes. "I know how hurt you were when Nicole cheated on you, but I swear I didn't feel as if I was cheating on you. I hate cheaters. I told you about the fight I had with Rory after she slept with Dean. You stay away from other women's husbands or other men's wives or their girlfriends or boyfriends. And you don't cheat yourself either. For me we were over and I now know that it wasn't clear to you that we were and there is nothing I can do to change that, but please understand that I wouldn't have done it if we still would have been together."

Luke nodded. "I know that. I do know and I really did forgive you. It's just that I can't get the images out of my mind, seeing you and him together."

Lorelai looked at Spencer for help, not knowing how to make this right.

"You'll have to try. Everybody comes with baggage in a relationship, unless you're two teenage virgins. But they hardly ever end up spending the rest of their lives together. Almost everybody slept with one or more people before they get together and there is nothing you can do to change that. Luke, you have a daughter with another woman so you slept with other women before you dated Lorelai.

This thing with Christopher happened in between. When you were separated so this isn't very different than sleeping with someone before you got together. Lorelai could have images in her head of you and Anna together, and you and Rachel and Nicole and whoever else you dated. You can have images in your mind of her and Max and whoever else she dated but what's the use? That was before you got together. This is about your relationship and not about the ones in the past. You were married before you got together with Lorelai and now she has been married as well. Does that change the way you feel about her?"

"But it was Chris and it wasn't baggage... she wore his ring! They were married and I had to see the ring when my daughter was being operated in hospital. It was... we wanted to get married.. she wore my ring and then bang she slept with him, got married and wore his ring. I had to stand by and watch them strolling through the town together, walking hand in hand receiving gifts from the other inhabitants. That just..."

"Hurt," Spencer completed and Luke nodded silently. "Lorelai did the thought ever come to you that you might hurt Luke when you were showing up with your new husband in town?" Spencer then asked.

"No. I couldn't let myself think about Luke at all. From the minute we broke up I was just numb and I didn't feel anymore. When we were confronted directly, like in the hospital, it hurt so bad to see that I had hurt him, that I just couldn't let myself think about it."

"You lived in denial," Spencer concluded.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I loved him even though I was married to Chris. I still do. But I would have gone crazy with pain just thinking about the fact that Luke seemed gone forever for me." At that Luke took her hand back in his.

"Does that change the way you feel about it Luke?" Spencer asked.

"I guess"

"My marriage was a mistake." Lorelai said. She had waited all those weeks to get that out. "I don't remember when Christopher and I started dating but it was just something that happened. I didn't gave it much thought. Then he asked me to come to Paris to bring Gigi to Sherry. There's something romantic about Paris that makes you do things you wouldn't normally do. As if you are drunk or high at all time and live in a bliss. It wasn't until we got home that I realized what I got myself in to. I was finally married. Something I wanted for so long, but it was to the wrong guy. I didn't love Christopher. Not the way I love you. He was annoying me with the way he barged into my life. How he changed Rory's room into Gigi's and how he replaced my good old TV for a flat screen. I tried to make it work but in the end I was miserable. I'd rather stay alone the rest of my life than spend it with a man I don't love. So I filed for divorce."

"Do you think you were ever meant to be with Christopher?" Spencer asked.

Lorelai shook her head. "I don't think so. Like you just said, almost nobody ends up with the person they dated in high school. When we were young Christopher and I had a lot in common but we grew apart and both got our own lives. Things that were important to me weren't important to him and the other way around." She then turned to Luke and grabbed his hands in hers, making sure he would hear her. "You and I have a lot in common. I really believe that we are meant to be together. If I see myself in the future, I see you with me. I can't picture my future without you in it."

A small smile appeared on Luke's face. Something that rarely ever happened and that Lorelai made smiled as well. "I can't see my future without you in it either. I want to marry you and Spencer is right. Christopher is in your past and has nothing to do with our future. He will always be Rory's father like Anna will always be April's mother, but to us they won't be anything more than that."

Her smile grew even bigger and she leaned forward and pressed her lips against Luke. She pulled away quickly, knowing Luke wouldn't be comfortable kissing in front of there therapist.

"And that's a wonderful conclusion." Spencer said with a small smile and leaned back in his chair. "The hour is over already so I think we'll leave it here for now. Don't forget to keep communicating together, although I don't think that will be a problem again. I will see you again next week."

And with that Luke and Lorelai left, hand in hand.

T.B.C.


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: As always, thanks for reading and reviewing the last chapter. And Jessi, as always lots of thanks to you as well!! _

**Chapter 9** **- Together again**

"The past eight weeks we talked about how you met and how your friendship turned into something more. Then we talked about the reasons why you broke up twice and the issues hanging between the two of you. Is there anything else that we should discuss?" Spencer asked, the following week.

Lorelai raised her shoulders. "I think we talked about everything important. I have to admit that when we first came to you we didn't think this would help us, but I really believe it has. There were many things we never talked about and it feels good to have them out in the open, and to have dealt with them."

"I agree." Luke said.

"Good. Then I would like to hear about how you became friends again, after your relationship ended the second time."

Lorelai thought for a while. "That was a slow process. I guess we avoided each other for the first few months. There wasn't much we had to say to each other, especially after I married Chris. The first time Luke called me after the ended engagement was when April was sick and was rushed to the emergency room when she had appendicitis."

"She was feeling bad and I didn't know what to do. Lorelai was the only person I could think of calling." Luke admitted.

"I know." Lorelai smiled and patted his knee. "I'm so sorry I only made things worse for you that night."

"That was when you saw her ring?" Spencer asked, remembering he mentioned April being operated on last week.

They both nodded.

"I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did. I should have told you." Lorelai said, still regretting how he found out about her marriage.

Luke nodded. "It doesn't matter anymore. It's in the past. It did hurt to see that ring on your finger but it's gone now."

She smiled. "The one I have now is much better."

He grabbed her hand and studied her ring for a second, tracing her finger tenderly. "It sure is."

Spencer smiled. Then he went back to business. "What happened afterwards? When did you speak again?"

"A few weeks later we met just outside Doose's market. Luke was babysitting Doola, our niece. And a couple of weeks after that he came to see me at the inn and asked me to write character reference for his custody battle over April."

They didn't notice the smile that appeared on Spencer's face when Lorelai said 'her niece'. They were too caught up in their conversation.

"I'm sure it was your letter that helped me win in the end," Luke said.

Lorelai shook her head. "Maybe it helped a little, but you did it all by yourself Luke. You are a great father and the judge realized that. You deserve to have shared custody over April. It's just sad it took so long before you got it."

"It's okay. Better late then never right? I get her one weekend a month, every other major holiday and half of the summer. Although half of the summer turned out to be only a few weeks because of her summer course. But she's such a smart kid and it meant so much to her. Who was I to tell her she couldn't go?"

Lorelai smiled. "And that is exactly why the judge gave you shared custody."

Luke lightly squeezed her hand to let her know how much that meant to him.

"I guess that letter really got us back on track although Christopher was pissed when he found that letter. He said he was my second choice, and now I know that he was. He was so mad he didn't even show up at the hospital after my father had that heart attack. While you were there immediately after you found out and did everything my mother asked you to. You picked up his car, you brought us food. I'm so glad you were there for me back then."

"You needed me." He simply stated.

She smiled. "I definitely did."

"Is that when your marriage with Christopher ended?" Spencer asked.

Lorelai nodded. "After he found that letter he was so mad. He said I cared more about Luke than I did about him, and that he was my second choice. I tried to deny it at first, but then I realized it was all true and in the end we realized a divorce would be best for us. We were never meant to be together and there was nothing we could do that would make us happy as a couple."

"And so you were alone again. Did you try to become closer with Luke afterwards?"

"No. Breaking up with Christopher actually made me mourn my failed relationship with Luke. All those months I suppressed my feelings and although I was really sad in the beginning, I never really gave it a place. Now that I was finally alone, it came all crashing down on me. All the mistakes I made, and what I lost in the process. When Chris pointed out that he was my second choice, I realized that he was right. He was, and always will be."

"What happened after that?"

"We both went on with our lives. It was months later when we ran into each other again in the maze. There was this festival in town where there was a big hay bale maze in the center of town and I somehow got lost inside. I ended up running into Luke and finally we apologized to each other about what happened. Things went really better after that."

"We should have said those things a long time ago." Luke said.

Lorelai nodded. "But I guess it was better late than never."

"It must have felt good to hear those things." Spencer said.

They both nodded, then Lorelai said "But things were still a bit awkward. I thought we could go back to normal after those things were said so I went to the diner for breakfast and hoped that it would be like before. As if I never left. But it was really weird to be back. Everybody was staring at me, Kirk kept on yammering on how I couldn't get my regular stool back and Luke and I didn't really know what to talk about. In the end I had him pull my coffee in a to-go cup and just left."

"You needed some time for things to be normal again." Spencer stated.

Lorelai smiled, remembering how things went on after that morning. "My jeep broke down later and with a little encouragement from Sookie I finally asked Luke to help me shop for a new one."

"Which was a disaster. She didn't like any of them." Luke muttered, which made Lorelai's smile even bigger.

"In the end we started bickering which for me really felt like things were starting to get normal again."

"I realized she didn't want another car. She liked the one she had so I found someone who was selling a jeep just like hers. I made sure the guy was selling it to her for a reasonable price so she could use the engine and fix her own car."

"That was one of the sweetest things anyone ever did for me." She said, placing her hand on his knee.

"Yeah well…" He said, a bit embarrassed. "It's stupid because you could have bought a new car for the price you spend on fixing your old one."

She smiled. "And yet you knew that's what I really wanted."

"You couldn't keep riding that bike of yours," Luke said.

"Why not? The only thing it was missing was a horn, other than that it was perfectly fine."

"But it was a good sign, that he did that for you," Spencer said.

She thought for a moment. "What I took as a really good sign was that he was wearing his old baseball cap again. The one I bought for him years ago, after he drove me to the hospital when my father collapsed the first time. He wore it every day since I gave it to me, until our engagement ended."

"You took that as a sign?" Luke asked, surprised.

"Yeah. You replaced it for that stupid black one after we broke up. I know that was because the blue one reminded you too much of me. So when you suddenly wore it again, I took that as a sign that you really forgave me."

"I didn't realize that." Luke said.

"Isn't that why you started wearing it again then?" She asked, wondering why else he would have start wearing it again.

"Honestly, no. At least not at first. The reason I wore the blue one is because I couldn't find the black one anywhere. I guess if things would have still been bad between the two of us I wouldn't have worn the blue one though. So maybe you're partially right. But I really started to wear it again because I lost the other one. When Zack found the black one behind the dishwasher a couple of days later and gave it back to me, I was used to wearing the blue one again so I just put the back one in the back of my closet."

Lorelai thought for a moment, a bit shocked by the news at first. But then she realized that it was a good sign after all. At least he kept on wearing the blue one in the end and put the black one away. "So it still was a good sign. When did Zack find it?"

"The morning after karaoke night at KC's."

She smiled. "So it was a really good sign that. It means I didn't scare you off with my song."

"Which song?" Spencer asked curiously.

Lorelai looked down, a bit embarrassed. "I will always love you, by Dolly Parton." She then looked up. "Rory was graduating and she was having trouble finding a job. She didn't got the internship at the New York Times she really wanted, and she rejected one of the jobs she did get and it was given to someone else when she realized she did want it. So we all went to KC's and I went on stage to make her feel better. But when I started singing Luke walked in and I suddenly realized how much that song fits for us. And I realized that I never stopped loving him, and that I never will and I really directed the song towards him."

"But you said you didn't meant it." Luke said.

"When?" She stared into his eyes, confused.

"The next day or so, at the diner. You told Miss Patty you didn't mean it."

"And you thought that was true?"

"Well, it's what you said," he said, still slightly hurt.

She shook her head. "Do you really think I wanted to put my heart out to the biggest gossip queen in town? It was embarrassing enough that everyone saw it. I was the subject in town. Everybody was talking about me. I just thought that if I told Miss Patty it didn't mean anything, they would shut up and leave us alone. I never meant for you to overhear that."

"So you did mean it?" He asked, needing to know for sure.

She looked directly in his eyes and stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Absolutely." And then with a smile she said "I will always love you."

"I'll always love you too."

That made her smile even bigger, if possible. "I know."

Spencer smiled, looking at the couple in front of him. "And then there was Rory's surprise goodbye party which Luke organized?" he asked.

Lorelai nodded, focusing her attention back on Spencer. "That's when I really realized how much Luke meant to me, and even more how much we still meant to him. At first I thought it was all Sookie's doing, but then she told me it was Luke and that gave me such a special feeling inside." She placed her hand over her heart to indicate where she felt it. "I went to search him and found him just exiting the diner. He had gotten more charcoal for the barbecue. At that point we didn't need many words. We were standing there, staring at each other and I thanked him. He looked at me and he said he just wanted to see me happy. I don't know when he dropped the charcoal and when we moved closer but suddenly I found myself in his arms and my lips were touching his, finally."

"And that is how you got back together?"

"We spend the summer afterwards together. Lorelai was getting used to Rory not being there anymore, and I wasn't going to spend it with April as was originally planned. Finally we moved in together and at the end of the summer I proposed and she said yes."

"And that's how we finally ended up here." Lorelai added.

"And that's the whole story." Spencer said.

Both Luke and Lorelai nodded. "That's the whole story."

"Do you feel you're ready to get married now?"

"Absolutely." Lorelai said.

"Definitely." Luke said at the same time, and they looked at each other with, both smiling.

"I agree."

Their gazes immediately went to Spencer, focusing on him completely.

"The past few weeks we talked about every aspect of your relationship and I really believe you weren't ready to get married when you first came to me. The two of you went through a lot and you never really discussed all those subjects thoroughly. But you learned a lot the past 8 weeks and I really believe that you are ready now. You dealt with all those subjects and now realize how important it is to communicate. And if you keep doing that, you will have a good and happy marriage ahead of you. And that why I wrote you this." He handed Lorelai an envelope which she opened with trembling fingers. She took out the letter and held it so she and Luke could read it together.

_Dear Mr. Doose,_

_Eight weeks ago Luke Danes and Lorelai Gilmore first came to my office with the request to write them this letter. A letter in which I tell you they are suitable to get married. _

_For the past eight weeks I talked with Luke and Lorelai on a weekly basis. At the beginning of this period I had to agree with you. There were many issues hanging between them and they had not dealt with them properly. And while a marriage probably would have lasted, the base would have been wrong. I am not willing nor allowed to discuss the subjects we talked about with you but I can guarantee you that we have dealt with those issues now. Getting to know Luke and Lorelai I realized they are two people who seem to belong together. They had a rough past but I am sure they will have a great future. _

_At this point in their relationship they are very ready for the next step, which in their case is marriage. And with this letter I want to let you know, that you should not stop them from getting married. They want to spend their special day with friends and family in the town they both love so much. And the only thing stopping them from doing that at the moment is you. I understand where you came from all those weeks ago, but now there is no reason to stop them from getting married. Not anymore. Therefore I want to ask you to trade this letter for their marriage license. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at the number listed above. And if you ever need someone to talk to, my office door is always open._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Dr. A. Spencer_

"Thank you." She said, after she finished reading the letter. You don't know how much this means to us.

"I have to thank you." Spencer replied. "For coming here and talking to me, for letting me help you."

"But that's your job." Luke said.

"Yes it is. But not everybody finds it easy to come here. And I know it wasn't your free choice to come here in the first place, but it was your choice to come back."

They both nodded again, understanding what Spencer was saying.

"Well, I guess this is it then." Luke said, while standing up.

Spencer and Lorelai followed his example and they shook hands, saying thanks once again. The last thing Spencer said before they left his office was. "Congratulations on your engagement. I'm sure you will have a great wedding, and an even better marriage."

And with that Luke and Lorelai went home.

T.B.C. 


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: This is the final chapter. I know many of you wanted it to be the actual wedding, but this was the plan and I hope you really like it. Personally I don't like writing weddings, because really it's always the same thing and I did it once and just don't really want to do it again that way. So even though you made me doubt what to do for a second, I decided to go with the original plan and I really hope you like it!  
Thanks to all of you who read and reviewed this story and lots of thanks to Jessi for all her help!!_

**Chapter 10 - Epilogue**

Spencer was sitting in his office and went through is mail. His next patient was sick and couldn't make it so it was the perfect time to catch up on his paperwork. There was a whole pile of mail on his desk that he hadn't gone through yet. Putting the envelopes he knew would be holding bills aside, his eyes fell on an envelope on which his name was written in curly letters but that wasn't what caught his attention. That was the hello kitty sign on the left top of the envelope. Curious he opened the envelope and found a long letter inside. Even more curious he started reading.

_Stars Hollow__, May 3 2009_

_Dear Spencer, _

_It has been over a year since you last saw us. A year in which a lot great things have happened, also thanks to you. In case you don't remember me, my name was Lorelai Gilmore and Luke and I saw you a few weeks in a row in order to get our marriage license. That I say my name was Lorelai Gilmore means I am now married to Luke and my last name is now Danes._

_This day is special for me, because it's Luke and my first wedding anniversary. A very special day for both of us and a day I once thought would never come._

_After we received the letter from you, we went to Taylor and he couldn't protest to give us the license anymore. The months after that we planned our wedding and it finally took place two years minus one month later than originally planned._

_Rory was my maid of honor, and both April and my best friend Sookie were bridesmaids. Luke asked Buddy, a family friend to be his best man. The day itself passed__ really quickly. We held the wedding at the inn where the end of the aisle was at the front porch. The place Luke and I kissed for the first time all those years ago. I don't remember much of the ceremony itself. All I know is that reverend Skinner said 'I now pronounce you husband and wife' and 'You may now kiss the bride.' I can still feel Luke's lips lingering on mine and the cheers from the crowd during that kiss. I don't remember saying 'I do' but I must have said it, otherwise we wouldn't be married right now. Luckily we have the whole thing on video so we can watch it as often as we want. Right now I think I've already seen our wedding video more times than I saw Willy Wonka, and I don't think I ever mentioned how many times I saw that movie. Believe me, a lot is still an understatement!_

_The party afterwards was amazing. Sookie made wonderful food and Lane's band was playing. And as an exception Hep Alien wasn't playing rock music but music they know Luke and I like most. Our first dance as husband and wife was to the song 'I will always love you.' A song that will always be special to me and Luke, especially since I got to explain in your session that definitely meant what I sang on stage that night. _

_As maid of honor Rory held a wonderful speech and Buddy did a great job as the best man as well. It was nice to hear him recalling memories of Luke as a child. April also said a few words but what meant most to me that night was the speech my mother prepared. She said she was glad Luke and I finally made it down the aisle and that she'd known for years that we were meant for each other. She said she was stupid to think that was wrong for us and that she regrets breaking us up the first time. Words I will never forget for the rest of my life._

_A few weeks after the wedding Luke and moved into our new house. A beautiful house on the border of Stars Hollow__. It's not as easy to walk into town from there, but we really enjoy living there. I have to admit I miss my old neighbor Babette sometimes, but we see each other at the weekly town meetings and at all the town events anyway. Besides, they can be found at Luke's diner several days a week and it's also nice and quiet._

_We have enough bedrooms for everyone. Luke put up bookshelves in Rory's room so she has a place to keep all her books. She's still traveling through the country for her job, even though the election is over now. She kind of misses having a place for herself. A place she can get home to, but on the other hand she's young and ambitious and sees a lot of the world. And that's the one thing she always dreamt of as a child. A dream that came trough for her._

_April and I painted her room together. That was great for bonding and we learned we have quite a few things in common. Whenever she comes over for the weekend we spend a lot of time together. Preferably all of us, but sometimes Luke has to work and I take April shopping, or we go see a movie together. It's really all I always dreamt of._

_And right now Luke is busy painting the nursery. As I am 7 months pregnant at the time, he won't let me anywhere near the room and that's probably a good thing. It's different being pregnant at this age. As a 16 year old girl I didn't see any danger and my body was more up to it. The first few months of the pregnancy were hard with a lot of morning sickness but after a while it got better and the cravings started. Now the baby is getting bigger and heavier it's getting harder again. Especially now it's already starting to get hot outside. It's only May! But I'm very determined to carry this baby to full term and according to my OBGYN everything is going very well._

_Since you don't know any of our friend, or our family I'll tell you a secret. The baby is a boy. Luke and I have known for a few months now. We found out when the results of the amniocentesis came back and that's also when we heard the baby is completely healthy. I tried to convince Luke of naming the baby Angus, after you, but I couldn't get him to concede. I thought it would be a nice way to say 'thank you' because I'm not sure if we would have ever made it to this day if it wasn't for you._

_Everything between Luke and me is going very well. We still spend at least half an hour a day just talking to each other. I know this will become a bit harder after the baby is born, but we also know how important it is for us to keep communicating. Now whenever something is bothering us, we just tell the other and after that the problem is solved quickly. It's not like we never fight, but it would be unnatural if we wouldn't. _

_We definitely learned a lot from the 8 weeks we came to you. Something we will never forget and will always cherish. At first we weren't too fond of the idea of seeing a therapist, but it turned out very well for us and it definitely was good for our relationship._

_We are not as independent anymore as we were before and we enjoy every day we get to spend together. I really hope we will have years of happy marriage in front of us, and we will never forget all that you did for us._

_I'm writing this letter today to thank you once again. Luke will be coming home soon and then we'll go out for dinner to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I think I've said everything I wanted to say so I guess it's time to get ready for the big date tonight. Luke always gets annoyed if I make him wait too long._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Lorelai Danes_

With a smile Spencer put the letter back in his envelope and walked to his archive cabinet. He went through his folders and easily found the one he was looking for. He carefully opened it and found the notes of the eight sessions Lorelai had been talking about in her letter inside. He put the letter in the folder and then put the folder back in the cabinet.

This way whenever he was having a bad day and things weren't going the way he planned he could get the letter out of this folder and read it again as a reminder of the good job he was doing. This letter was a proof that he, Angus Spencer, did make a difference in people's lives.

The end.


End file.
